Where the St. Thomas More Knights will be in three weeks’ time is yet to be determined.
What they’re doing in the coming two weeks is geared towards getting them to B.C. Place.
The Knights wrapped up the senior AAA football season with a win on Saturday, topping Mission 21-7 in the Valley.
Earning a bye through to the second round of the playoffs, STM has a chance to recuperate from any aches and injuries, and hone their strategy for their to-be-determined opponent.
Against Mission and without standouts Tyler Eckert and Sam Steele, the Knights faced their toughest test since edging the then-No. 1 ranked Terry Fox Ravens a month ago. But that closeness gave head coach Steve DeLazzari a prime example of why coaches preach about the here and now.
“I think it was good for us in a way. I think it made them realize that, you know what, that’s the way teams are going to be playing us from now on, the way Mission did,” said DeLazzari. “Teams are going to come out and play us hard; we need to respond in a much better way. And we didn’t on Saturday. I told them at the end that, if they played like that in the quarterfinal, our season will be over.”
In other words, that 7-0 regular season conference record is irrelevant when it comes to the next game.
The Knights didn’t take the lead Saturday until the last play of the first half, when receiver David Osho caught a 40-yard Dario Ciccone toss.
Osho added another touchdown on defence, when he stripped a Mission rusher of the ball and returned it 30 yards for a TD. Ciccone would also carry it in from five yards to round out the offence.
Although the defence kept the Roadrunners outside the 20-yard zone on all but a couple of chances, there were a few areas that could have been sharper.
“To be honest, it almost felt like a loss the way we played,” noted DeLazzari. “It was our most underwhelming performance of the year. I kind of defined it as we played (more) like a team who knew we had a bye than a team that was hungry going into playoffs.”
Ciccone suffered his first interception of the season, but finished with a still-impressive 10-for-16 on pass attempts and 126 yards. Defensively, Jonah Fridfinnson was busy with 14 tackles, while Mateo Carteri contributed eight.
STM had already clinched first place in the Eastern conference and the bye through the first round of the playoffs. Missing both Eckert – to an illness – and Steele to a minor injury put the onus on others to lead. For the most part, they succeeded.
The opening round match-up that they’re focused on is the Kelowna Owls (3-3) against the Notre Dame Jugglers (4-3), with the winner being their opponent next week.
DeLazzari said it’s important that no matter whom the Knights face, they have to respect that opponent as a serious threat. Both are capable of delivering a take-down performance on an unprepared rival.
The bye, in his eyes, may help the club reach optimum health – veterans Joel Pielak (running back and linebacker) and Connor Hayek (receiver and defensive back) have been sidelined for a good chunk of the season – but it also could stall the momentum they built up.
“As a coach it’s a double-edged sword in terms of having that bye,” said DeLazzari. “I traditionally don’t like it because you like the regular routine of finishing the game and getting ready that week for your next opponent. There’s that continuity, you do your prep stuff… With two whole weeks between games, hopefully no rust builds up over that time and we can execute at the same level we’ve done during the rest of the season.”
