GRANITE CITY - The Triad Knights showed why they will be considered one of the top teams in the St. Louis area on Friday night, building a 21-0 first-quarter lead and going on to a 49-13 win over Granite City in the season football opener for both teams at Memorial Stadium/Kevin Greene Field in the Nelson Hagnauer Sports Complex in Granite City.
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The Knights scored on their first three possessions in building the lead, taking a 49-0 lead, but the Warriors didn't give up, scoring twice in the second half to cut the lead to 49-13, and kept fighting throughout the whole game.
"Well, early on in the game, I felt we matched the intensity," said Granite head coach Steve Roustio, who was making his debut at the helm for the Warriors. "In other words, It took them a little bit to get into the end zone. I don't know what the score was at the end of the quarter, just looking back on the top of my head, I don't know if it was 7-0 or 14-0. They must have scored twice at the end of the first quarter.
"We can't have our defense on the field that long. You just can't have your defense on the field, that's just asking too much of them. We've got to be able to move the ball early in the game, we've got to be able to move the chains, we've got to keep our offense on the field, we've got to be able to make some plays. And if we're not going get into the end zone, if we do fizzle out, we've have to at least eat up some clock. Obviously, every time you have the ball, you want to try to score, but you have to hold on to the ball. It can't be three-and-out, it just can't be. It's just putting too much pressure on our defense.
"And our defense is actually pretty decent," Roustio continued, "but like I said, they can't be on the field three quarters of the game. We've got two-way players, not a lot of them, but maybe five or six of them. Those guys are playing offense and defense, and they're just going to get fatigued trying to keep Triad out of the end zone.
"But I felt we played early on, maybe the first eight minutes of the game, but like I said, once they scored a couple, three times, I saw our guys get deflated a little bit, but we challenged them at halftime, and we talked about just trying to get better and trying to get ready for next week, and get ready for the Marion game. In order to do that, we couldn't worry about the score, we had to come out and fight and try to get better. And I think we did that."
The effort certainly showed in the second half, as the Warriors kept plugging away and fighting, scoring twice to boost the team's confidence tremendously.
"And, you know, that has to do with the Triad coaching staff doing the right thing and letting some of their other kids play," Roustio said. "I know coach (Calvin) Porrhast pretty well, and he's a class person and a class coach. He did the right thing, in terms of letting a lot of his guys play, and as a result, we were able to have a little bit more success in the second half. But I don't even think we would have that happen for us if we not kept our head about us, and had we stayed down mentally, I don't even know if we would have been able to do what we did So, I think there were basically two reasons why that we were able to punch the ball in the end zone. We just kept fighting, and they did the right thing, in terms of coach letting other people play."
For Triad's part, the team played very well on both sides of the ball, and Potthast feels that the defense is playing up to the same level of his 2022 team.
"Overall, the defense is back to playing what they did two years ago," Potthast said. "Last year, we didn't get enough work for them in the summer and it showed. it really was hard on the team all year, we tried to improve defensively, but we're back. The defense is playing much better, we've got a great defensive line, our our youth is showing in the secondary; they're almost all back from last year, and there's a reason why our defense is flying the way they are. Offensively, we've still got some things to clean up, and we know that. There's a big penalty that cost us, but we'll clean those things up and come back."
The Knights scored on their first two possessions, getting a Nic Ogden 24-yard touchdown run and a three-yard run by Brock Lynch to go ahead 14-0 within the first eight minutes of the game to go ahead 14-0. and would have had a 75-yard touchdown run from quarterback Issac Ackerman, but it was called back on a penalty. After a score early in the second to make it 21-0, Ackerman hit a wide-open Brayden Riney for a 49-yard touchdown pass to up the lead to 35-0,
Jack Phelps later scored to make it 42-0 late in the second quarter, and Ian Dempsey intercepted a pass and took it back 32 yards for another touchdown to make the score 49-0 Triad at halftime.
After the interval, with the running clock rule in effect, the Warriors hung in there and were rewarded with a one-yard touchdown run by Ryan Brokaw to make the score 49-6 after a two-point pass fell incomplete. Granite got a second touchdown on a Zaiden Kelley touchdown pass to Isaiah Ford from 15 yards out to make the final 49-13 after the conversion.
The Knights open up 1-0 and play their home opener next Friday against Mt Zion, while the Warriors start off 0-1, and face Marion at home next week. Kickoff times for both games will be 7 p.m.
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