Knights advance to OFSAA football bowl with play-in game win

“(The St. Peter players) are extremely happy,” Knights coach Jim Mick said. “They know it’s a great feat and OFSAA is going to be an awesome experience. They’re feeling very fortunate.”

Mick called the play-in game “one of the most exciting” he’s ever watched – a contest that went “back-and-forth and back-and-forth.”

Nick Lecour emerged as the hero for the Knights, as the usual linebacker stepped onto the offensive side of the ball and scored three touchdowns, including one with 1:30 left to play that gave St. Peter a 33-20 advantage.

“Nick Lecour was outstanding,” Mick noted. “He played just about every position you could imagine. Defensively, he played linebacker, but on offence, we used him on offensive guard, tailback, and he even returned some punts for us.”

The victory represented a turn of the tables compared to last year when the Knights were soundly handled by a different Kingston school, Frontenac, who downed St. Peter 36-7 in the same OFSAA play-in game.

“Last year, I found our guys were mentally overwhelmed by that team,” Mick said, noting there was a big letdown by his team in the second half of that contest. “This year, yeah, we got scored on, but they came back and that was the difference – they were willing to compete this year.”

The 60-point combined total by the teams represented a 57-point increase over last week when the Knights won their second consecutive National Capital league title 3-0 over St. Mark.

“Last week our defence played exceptionally well, but special teams and offensively, we really didn’t produce,” Mick added, noting they were able to move the ball passing and running against Holy Cross. “This week, our defence still played well and we gave up 27 points. Holy Cross, give credit to them, they’re a very good ball club.

“They were a fairly big team and they ran the ball on us and pushed us back, but credit to our guys – they would counter when our offence went on and we were able to run the ball very effectively as well. It wasn’t really fancy.”

There won’t be much to change in the game plan for the big game on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m., especially considering there’s only a three-day break since the previous match.

“With so few days turnaround, your ability to prepare for the next opponent is somewhat limited,” Mick noted, adding his knowledge of their opponents, Crestwood of Peterborough, is based on the type of things he knows they have done historically to be a successful program.

Crestwood also played in the OFSAA National Capital Bowl last year, falling to Frontenac. St. Peter returns to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations finals for the first time since 2005, when they won 24-10 over Sydenham, from north of Kingston.

“I think the keys are really quite similar from week to week,” Mick said, noting exploiting the opposition's mistakes and limiting their own should be all it comes down to. “We rely on our defence quite a bit. It’ll be no different. We always look for our defence to make plays and continue the solid game they have been playing.

“Special teams will be important for us, and offensively we want to be able to establish both our run and pass game.”