The beat goes on for the top Tier II team in the province.
The No. 1 ranked Holy Trinity Academy Knights improved to 7-0 on the strength of a 70-15 road romp over the Cardston Cougars in a high school football barnburner on Oct. 14.
“It was pretty even after the first quarter and then we made some adjustments, settled down and started playing a little bit better,” said Knights head coach Matt Hassett.
Last season, the Cougars clawed back from a massive deficit to secure a 38-38 tie with the Knights in Okotoks in one of the most memorable matches of the 2021 campaign.
It was a different story in Cardston.
The running game set up the passing game, with play action employed a number of times with quarterback Ryan Petersen having a monster game behind centre.
“They were having trouble stopping the run and would over-commit on the run and we would do a play action pass,” the coach added. “And some of them were just really great catches in tight direction.”
The Grade 12 signal caller had touchdown passes to Chris Peloso, Ben Gutek, Thomas Rodehutskors and Marshall Hartwell and called his own number for a QB keeper goalline run as well.
Defensive end Adam Hassett added a 35-yard touchdown on special teams, catching a botched punt attempt and returning it to the house.
Defensively, the Knights had a particularly strong showing from the front-seven with the coach giving kudos to linemen Lukas Smith, Ben Haden, Adam Hassett and Ted Tell.
This week, the Knights travel once again to a southern football powerhouse as they tackle the defending Tier I provincial champion Raymond Comets on Oct. 21, in HTA’s last scheduled game before playoffs. Raymond is ranked third in Tier I.
“They’re really good and it will be a great test for us,” Hassett said. “That’s the biggest thing with our schedule is getting high quality games. We were both young teams last year and (Raymond) beat us by five at Holy Trinity and they looked very good.”
