It’s going to be a lot of long nights for teams trying to defend these Knights.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights showcased their dynamic offence with five first-half touchdowns en route to the 45-20 triumph over the Catholic Central Cougars in high school football action Thursday night in Okotoks.
“I think it was just athletes making plays and everyone doing their jobs,” said Knights head coach Matt Hassett. “And spreading the ball around and we’re pretty athletic so we’re hard to match up against.
“I thought we shot ourselves in the foot too many times, so we’ve got to clean that up, but it was a good start and a step forward from last week.”
The Knights got to work early in their home and season opener in front of a big crowd on the first day of school.
After the defence forced a quick 2 and out, the Knights offence marched down the field with Noah Gutek scoring his first of two touchdowns on a short yardage handoff from quarterback Ben Leggett.
The Cougars bounced back with the ball back in their possession and mounted an impressive drive, leading to a five yard touchdown pass from lefty quarterback Jackson Laurie. The Knights blocked the point after attempt.
HTA was back in the end-zone in short order. Strong running from Brad Lojstrup kept the chains moving leading to another touchdown run from Gutek.
Once again the Cougars proved to be a resilient bunch as Laurie led the visitors to a 1st and goal situation and scrambled in for a touchdown to trim the deficit to 14-13.
The Knights wrestled back momentum in one full swoop.
On the ensuing kickoff, Grade 12 receiver Nick Dielissen broke off an 80-yard return touchdown down the right sideline.
“In my mind right before I was just thinking don’t drop the ball,” Dielissen said. “And as soon as I caught it I just looked for my big guys, my blockers and just followed them.”
The Knights defence then got possession back in their hands on a fumble recovery by Malachi Busse. Grade 10 Jack Gutek scored his first touchdown with the Knights on their next drive on an outside run.
“That was huge. I thought that (kickoff return) was the turning point and then we got it back and scored right after that,” Hassett added. “They’re probably not too happy with the last few minutes of the first half.
“That was huge for Nick because they just scored. I didn’t think our D-line played very well in the first half, our ends weren’t keeping contain so that’s something we’ve definitely got to work on and discipline and make the plays we’re supposed to make.”
Dielissen found his way into the end-zone once more on the final play of the half.
The physical receiver bounced off a tackle in open field, cut back and found a lane into the end-zone from about 40 yards to make it a 35-13 advantage.
“As soon as I caught it he was right there and we collided and bounced off each other,” Dielissen said. “Then I just turned on the jets, followed Jack Gutek with a great block.”
Runningback Sawyer Quinlan added the team’s sixth touchdown on a goal line run early in the second half followed up by a Loghan Kenyon field goal.
Catholic Central added a late touchdown in the fourth quarter with the result already sewn up by the high-octane Knights offence.
Between Leggett, Dielissen, Noah Gutek and younger brothers Jake and Luke at receiver and an array of options at tailback, the Knights offence will be asking a lot of questions of opposing defensive units this season.
“It’s awesome,” Dielissen said. “It’s relieving to know that someone is always going to be open because every single receiver is good. We will be able to split any defence, everybody will be open and there’s always going to be an option.”
HTA, provincial finalists last season, opened the season with a scrimmage in Cardston last week prior to full-game action against Catholic Central.
“Before the game everyone was really hyped, but in practices it seemed kind of like we weren’t executing as good,” Dielissen said. “But we just went out and executed and did our jobs.
“It was definitely a great start, but there are areas for improvement. We brought ourselves down mostly with mistakes.”
Next up for HTA is a Sept. 6 tilt against the Rundle College Cobras, a 7 p.m. start at Knights field.
