Knoch football coach Mike King is hopeful of two things come Friday night.

No. 1: Heavy rains and lightning don't hit and shorten his team's season opener against Freeport to two quarters, like it did last year.

No. 2: His team plays better than it was playing before the heavy rains and lightning shortened the game.

"We talked about that with the kids this week," King said of last year's 15-0 loss to the Yellowjackets. "Last year at this time, we had an awfully lot of people playing in their first varsity football game and it showed.

"We'll have some kids playing in their first game this year, too. Hopefully, it won't show. You have to make good things happen on the field and we have a bunch of kids who can do that."

Knoch is coming off a 3-7 season that ended with a loss to West Allegheny in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.

Freeport is coming off a 6-3 campaign - and was denied a playoff berth in Class AA.

"Freeport has a very good defensive team and we'll have our hands full with them," King said. "We'll have to execute a lot better than we did in our scrimmages."

The Knights scrimmaged Mars and Burrell in the preseason and King described his team's play as "OK."

"We weren't running up a bunch of touchdowns, but that wasn't our prime intent," he said. "We were trying to look at people at specific positions."

Greg Braden, a tight end last year, is starting at guard and defensive end this year. He will be one of five two-way starters in the Knights' lineup Friday.

The others are center-linebacker Bill Elliott, quarterback-cornerback Jordan Shoop, fullback-linebacker Justin McGowan and wide receiver-defensive back Dan Pickard.

Alex Whisler, a sophomore, won the starting tailback job. Curtis Howard, a speedster and a transfer from Shaler, has shifted to receiver.

"Alex won the job outright," King said. "That was one of the big surprises in camp."

Two would-be senior starters - receiver-free safety Joel Berger and defensive end Mike Burns - will not play Friday because of shoulder injuries.

Freeport coach Bill Dillen knows what the Knights are capable of, starting with Shoop.

"He's a total, all-around player," said Dillen. "He runs, he passes, he has the presence on the field.

"He gets that from his dad (Knoch boys basketball coach Les Shoop) and being around sports all his life," Dillen added.

Dillen believes the Knights will be a better football team this year, starting with more team speed.

"We want to keep them off the field," said Dillen. "We'll run our base stuff and use our ability and quickness to negate that.

"I think they'll be a lot better football team this year. It should be a good game," he added.

Junior Bryan Zimmerman will run the offense at quarterback while Brady Sherrieb and Kevin Turner will lead the running backs.

"We have three other (running backs) ... so it gives us a little more depth," said Dillen. "That's something we didn't have last year. Nate Kurtz did most of the running."

Dillen is also pleased about heading into the game with a full squad of players.

"We're getting out of it without any injuries so we're beginning the year with that."