The high school football season opened locally with games at the junior and senior levels on Saturday at Superior Heights.
A strong defensive effort lifted the Superior Heights Steelhawks to a 22-0 victory over the St. Mary’s Knights in senior action on opening day.
“When called upon, (the defence) stifled drives,” said Superior Heights Coach Seth Cond.
“It’s a strength of our team.” Cond also said. “If we can tilt the field with our defence and our specials, and give our offence an opportunity to score when we can, that’s going to be our game plan.”
Joe Rosso had six tackles and three assisted tackled for Superior Heights. Nick Roussain had four tackles, two assisted tackles and a sack.
The Steelhawks, looking to win the school’s fifth consecutive senior title, had six sacks defensively while Ethan West and Geryd Lesage had interceptions.
“We did what we needed to do when we needed to do it,” Cond said. “We work for progress over perfection. We want to get better every day and add a layer to our lego castle.”
After a scoreless opening quarter and leading 1-0 after an early single in the second quarter, the Steelhawks used a pair of late touchdowns to take a 15-0 lead into the half.
Cooper Lafromboise caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Ethan Johnson with 4:07 to go in the quarter before Mitchell DellaVedova ran the ball in from three yards out.
Late in the third quarter, Elijah Yandeau would increase the Superior Heights lead with a 45-yard touchdown run to cap off the Steelhawks 22-0 victory.
“We made a lot of mistakes and took penalties at bad times,” said St. Mary’s Coach Jim Monico.
“We’re happy with where we’re at,” Monico also said. “We’ve just got to make some tweaks and move some personnel around and we’ve got to get tougher.”
Lafromboise finished the day with 114 yards rushing on 14 carries while also catching a pair of passes. Yandeau had 94 yards rushing on 13 carries. As a team, the Steelhawks finished the day with 237 yards rushing.
Parker St. Onge had 55 yards rushing on 14 carries while Matt Wheten ran for 31 yards on seven carries.
Defensively for St. Mary’s, Evan Sicoli and Zach Tadashore had five tackles each. Carter Harrison, Andrew Girardi and Ahaan Marwah recovered fumbles for the Knights.
The early game on Saturday saw St. Mary’s beat Superior Heights 42-0 in the junior game.
The high school schedule continues on Sunday with games at Superior Heights. White Pines will face Korah in junior and senior action. The junior game is set to begin at 10 a.m. with the senior game to kick off at 2 p.m.