Colts ride fast start in season opener

A fast start was the ideal way for the Korah Colts to open play in senior high school football on Sunday afternoon.

A touchdown on the opening play from scrimmage, and three in the opening quarter, lifted the Colts to a season-opening 48-0 win over the White Pines Wolverines Sunday at Superior Heights.

Caleb Patteri ran the ball in from 35 yards out on the opening play and Nik Gervasi added a pair of touchdowns in the opening quarter on runs of 25 and 60 yards to build the Colts lead.

“We’ve got two pretty talented backs there and we caught them a little off guard,” Korah Coach Tom Annett said. “It was great to establish the run game early. That was huge to set the tone for the whole game.”

For White Pines, the quick start by the Colts provided his team with a learning experience in week one.

“They’ve got a great backfield is a great running back and we keyed in on him all week but it’s faster in person and we found that out,” said White Pines Coach Marco Bernabucci. “They found out in a hurry what it takes and where we’ve got to be.”

Gervasi finished the day with three touchdowns after running the ball in from 56 yards out in the final minute of the third quarter in addition to his earlier majors. Gervasi would finish the day with 205 yards rushing on eight carries.

“He’s a genetic freak, that guy,” Annett joked. “He’s been a AAA hockey guy and we’re really lucky to inherit him in our program. He might be a better football player than a hockey player. He’s going to do some damage this year. He’s getting better and better each week.”

Tyler Legros (84-yard run), Zac Zeppa (74-yard run) and Jordan Robinson-Wright (24-yard run) also had majors for the Colts. The Colts would rack up 516 yards rushing on 29 carries as a team in the win.

Defensively for the Colts, Aaron Keranen had a pair of tackles and a sack, as did Zeppa. Darian Belkosky also had a sack for the Colts while Tyler Albert chipped in with a fumble recovery.

“They did a really good job,” Annett said of the Colts defence. “There were a lot of gang tackles and hustling to the ball.”

Lucas Higham finished the day with 37 yards rushing on 14 carries while Kendrick Saari caught a pair of passes for 37 yards.

Defensively for the Wolverines, Saari had three tackles and a fumble recovery, as did Brandon Southwind.

Despite the result, Bernabucci had no issue with the effort of his team in the loss.

“Our guys battled out until the end,” Bernabucci said. “Unless something was broken, every guy wanted to get back on the field.

In junior action on Sunday, Korah picked up a 56-0 win over White Pines.

The Colts return to action on Thursday night against St. Mary’s while White Pines is back in action the following night against Superior Heights. Kickoff for the junior games is 4:45 p.m. with the senior game to follow at 7:30 p.m. All games are scheduled to be played at Superior Heights.