By Sam Laskaris
A pair of undefeated teams only managed to put up a total of five points in a Friday high school senior boys’ football match held at Northern’s Clarke Pulford Field.
Fortunately for members of the Northern Red Knights it was their squad that scored all the points as they blanked the visiting Western Tech Colts 5-0.
With the win the Red Knights finished off their regular season with an unblemished 4-0 mark. The Colts dropped to 1-3 on the season.
Friday’s win also allowed Northern to finish atop the standings of its five-team Toronto public schools circuit.
The Red Knights are now preparing for their city semi-final contest which will be held next Friday, Nov. 4, against the Lawrence Park Panthers.
That contest will be held at Esther Shiner Stadium. Game time is 1 p.m.
The Panthers ended up with a record of 1-3 and in a tie with the Richview Saints and Etobicoke Rams, who posted identical records.
Following a points for/against formula, Richview ended up in third place in the standings while Lawrence Park finished fourth.
Etobicoke is the only league entrant that will not participate in the post-season.
The Red Knights were able to secure their win on Friday in part to an Andrew Kenny interception in the final minute of play as the Colts were driving down the field for a potential game-winning TD.
Kenny was obviously pleased Northern held on for the W and earned top spot in the standings.
“We’ve worked hard for it all season,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of close games but we’re happy we got it.”
Kenny added he wasn’t disappointed with the few number of points scored in the outing.
“Northern is known for our defence and our defence showed up today,” he said. “We got zero points (against). And that’s what we want to do.”
The Red Knights opened the scoring early in the second quarter when kicker Liam Trail successfully kicked a 20-yard field goal.
The only other scoring in the match came in the fourth quarter when the Colts conceded a safety, following an attempted Western Tech punt deep in its own zone. The snap on the play sailed over the head of the Colts’ kicker who ran into his own end zone and managed to boot the play out of bounds resulting in a two-point safety for the Red Knights.
Kenny said his teammates will now turn their attention to the playoffs.
“The thing they say about sports is never (get) too high or too low,” he said. “We’ve got to stay level. And we’ve got to stay motivated. And we’ve got to keep going.”
Red Knights’ lineman Sena Biya was pleased to see his club end up in first place in the standings.
“It feels good but the job is not finished,” Biya said. “We can’t get satisfied. We need to keep working. All I care about is holding a (league championship) trophy.”
Biya said his teammates knew they needed to perform on the Colts’ last drive to pull out the W.
