By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
The Knights football team used a big second quarter to vanquish the Big Lake Hornets by a score of 42-10.
STMA drove down the field and Mitchell Kartes caught a three-yard touchdown pass from Griffen Marquette, the first of four Kartes would score on the night.
The Hornets responded with a field goal, cutting the lead to 7-3 near the end of the opening quarter. In the second, Kartes scored three touchdowns on the ground to give the Knights a 28-3 lead going into halftime.
One of the stranger plays in the game occurred in the second quarter on a punt return which turned into a touchdown; except for the fact that STMA committed an illegal forward lateral.
Early in the third quarter, Mitch Bourgerie ran for a 27-yard touchdown and also kicked the extra point on his own score. On Big Lake’s next drive, Travis Brown ran an interception back for a touchdown to make the score 42-3.
The Hornets got a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but the Knights ran away with the game, defeating the Hornets by 32 points. The Knights leaned heavily on the ground game once again, pounding out 249 total rushing yards. Kartes had 120 and four total touchdowns. Sam Bong and Desean Phillips also saw some action along with Kyle Hayden.
Head coach Jared Essler said that the team made some growth from the week of practice.
“Our execution as far as our schemes was better this week than last week, and that’s what you really hope for as a coach,” Essler said.
The Knights play at Rogers on Friday in a huge North Central District showdown.