Knights hoist city championship trophy (48 photos)

The St. Mary's Knights are champions of the High School Football League.

Backed by a potent offensive attack and a powerful defense, the Knights defeated the Sir James Dunn Eagles 41-7 to capture the senior division city championship on Friday night at Rocky DiPietro Field.

The victory gives the Knights, who also captured the Tom Tipton Trophy as regular season champions, the Hollingsworth Family Trophy as city champions.

The Knights will now practise and wait two weeks for the Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) championship game on November 12. St. Mary's received a bye into the final and will travel to play the winner of the semi-final game between Sudbury and North Bay.

The city championship completes a season of local dominance for the Knights. Aside from compiling a 5-0 regular season record, the Knights shutout their opponents in five consecutive games, including a semi-final win over St. Basil last week, and scored an average of over 50 points per game.

In the city final, Chris Lebel, who was named the College Prospects of America Player of the Game, led the Knights with 215 yards on 17 carries and three touchdowns.

Despite the lopsided score, the Eagles played tough against the Knights and both teams provided fans with an entertaining game.

Sir James Dunn opened the scoring on the game's opening drive as Peter McGonegal scored on a 24 yard run but St. Mary's took over from there.

On the Knights' first offensive possession, Lebel scored on a 22 yard run. Jordan Casola then caught a 10 yard touchdown pass from quarterback John Mullin for a 14-7 lead at halftime.

In the second half, St. Mary's pulled away as Lebel scampered for touchdowns of 10 and four yards while Jeff Greco rushed for two more touchdowns of 24 and 10 yards. Jeff Pellegrino was successful on five of six convert attempts.

Greco added 111 yards rushing on 11 attempts while Mullin completed eight of 12 passes for 173 yards. Mark Devuono caught four passes for 90 yards.

Defensively for the Knights, Jordan Verdone led with 9.5 tackles while Mark Thorburn added seven, Jason Amadio six, Brad Symboluk five and Alex Zalewski five. Mike Esson hauled in an interception.

For the Eagles, McGonegal ran for 137 yards on 22 carries and Ryan Bangma added 48 yards on 11 attempts. Luke Wilson caught two passes for 16 yards.

Navarre Cellini led the defense with six tackles while Steve Running added five and Fred Casselman 4.5. Frank Theriault recovered a fumble.

*** REFEREE'S AWARD:

Sir James Dunn's Frank Weise became the fourth winner of the Sault Ste. Marie Football Referee's Association Award for the player besting combining ability with sportsmanship.

Weise edged out nominees Clint Cudmore (Korah), Dan Vaz (Bawating), Mark Thorburn (St. Mary's), Alanzo Clarke (White Pines) and Tommy Reville (St. Basil).

Weise received a bursary in the amount $200, which is donated by the officials from their east/west game fees.

Previous winners include Gary Knox (St. Mary's), Matt Parker (Korah) and Jourdan Morin (Korah).

*** JUNIOR:

St. Mary's and Sir James Dunn will meet once again on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Rocky DiPietro Field for the junior division city championship.