It was a tough end to an even rougher season for the St. Thomas More Knights.
The No. 6-ranked Knights were knocked out of the B.C. high school AAA varsity football playoffs following a 56-24 loss to the defending two-time provincial champion Mt. Douglas Rams at Westhills Stadium in Victoria on Friday.
The No. 1-ranked Rams' all-star offensive line of Zach Wilkinson, Christian Krause, Peter Elwood, Foster McGee and Aarmin Purewal were at its best last week, opening holes for conference MVP Marcus Davis to rush for 217 yards and four touchdowns in the quarter-final matchup.
"We battled, we played hard, but unfortunately, the big-play ability of Marcus (Davis) came through. He was decisive factor, but especially Krause and Wilkinson, they were so big in terms of the success they had along the line," said STM head coach Bernie Kully in an email.
STM's converted quarterback Malcolm Lee soldiered through with another strong outing despite the loss, throwing for 120 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown strike to J.J. DesLauriers, and rushing for 170 yards on the ground.
The Knights's defensive secondary also showed well with Drew Belgrave and Kevin Marshall leading the team with eight tackles apiece. Jordan McKenzie had six tackles and two quarterback sacks, while Anthony Carteri added five individual stops.
But making up for the loss of all-purpose back Jalen Jana and quarterback Chase Malcolm for all or part of the season was a trial at times for the Knights.
"When you look at the year as a whole, considering we didn't have Jalen and Chase, it was a snake-bitten year, but when you had that many guys out and still have a season like we did, it was a good year," said Kully of the team's 8-4 year. "There were a lot of life lessons learned from this year about what the future holds, and I'm proud of how we competed."
The STM junior varsity team moved on in the playoffs following a 28-14 upset win over south division league champion Vancouver College last week.
