Knights fall short of perfect season
Only one team was going to leave the field at TD Place owning a perfect season.
The St. Peter Knights’ only hope was that years from now, it would have been a reunion back on Charlemagne Blvd. in Orleans, the current roster now well into adulthood, and gathering in the gym to replay and maybe embellish their own undefeated season — that ‘special season’ way back in 2018.
It just wasn’t to be as the big and bruising Korah Collegiate Colts became the first to beat the previously 7-0 Knights in impressive fashion, travelling over 800 kilometres from Sault Ste. Marie to stun St. Peter right in their own backyard and win the OFSAA National Capital Bowl 45-12 on a snowy Tuesday night on the field at TD Place.
Until the Northerners arrived, no team had even contested St. Peter through the regular season and National Capital playoffs, with the Knights outscoring their opposition 206-56.
On paper it didn’t appear to be a mismatch and when Korah spotted the Knights a 6-0 lead early, it looked like it might be a shootout.
Then Korah went to work with the crushing running game of 180-pound Zac Zeppa and 200-pound backfield mate Nik Gervasi and it was really no contest at all.
The Knights, a little light up front and a little undersized at linebacker, simply had no answer for the pair who ran at will and took the game over.
“This is a great group of guys,” said Knights QB Ryan Licandro, the best talent in the entire Bowl Series, even in defeat. The 6-4, 215-pounder scored two touchdowns, one from in close and the other from 15 yards out while trying to keep his team in it with his arm and feet.
In four of their seven games coming in the Bowl, St. Peter held their opposition to 10 points or less five times, four of those games to six points on less.
Korah was another matter. They also arrived in Ottawa also unbeaten with a 6-0 mark in the regular season while building a point-differential of plus-248.