The defending champion St. Joan of Arc Knights rolled to a 55-0 home-field win over the St. Peter’s Panthers in senior boys high school football action Thursday evening.
The game was a rematch of the Catholic league final from last year, but there was little drama as the Knights scored early and often to lead 42-0 at halftime.
Knights running back Konrad Cieplicki ran in four touchdowns, two off direct snaps from centre, while Judah Davis caught two passes from Jack Sierra-Serrano for major scores after Aidan Cranney opened the scoring with the game’s first TD. Cieplicki also added seven PATs by way of his boot for 31 points in total.
Not a bad day’s work.
“We fought hard today, right from the start,” said Cieplicki. “We (kept it going) to the last whistle and came out with the win.”
Indeed.
After a turnover, Will Brown punched in a second-half score from the Panthers' one-yard line and Thomas Robinson notched a defensive touchdown off a scoop-and-score in the second half.
The first-place Knights are now 2-0. They face St. Joseph's next week.
“I think (the Panthers) are better than the score (indicated),” said Knights head coach Chris Forde. “We just got the jump on them early.”
The Panthers dropped to 1-1 with the loss after beating Midland’s St. Theresa’s last week.
Three Barrie school teams – St. Joan of Arc, St. Peter’s and the St. Joseph’s Jaguars – combine with Orillia’s Patrick Fogarty and St. Theresa’s to form the Catholic School Athletics of Simcoe County (CSASC) loop.
The Knights, who beat St. Theresa’s 45-7 last week to open their season, have long been the dominant Catholic program, but were knocked off their lofty perch when they lost to the Bear Creek Kodiaks last season in the Georgian Bay final.
Both Forde and Cieplicki acknowledged a sense of unfinished business from last season while trying to stay focused on the immediate task at hand.
“Iron sharpens iron,” said Cieplicki. "If we can keep working hard, show up to practice, practise hard, I think we have what it takes to be successful this year.
“(But) we can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Teams in the CSASC play a six-game schedule through October, with the top four teams making the playoffs. The Georgian Bay final, pitting the CSASC and Simcoe County Athletic Association (SCAA) champions, goes Nov. 14. The winner earns a spot in the provincial final in Windsor.
Interested observers on Thursday included a representative from McMaster University’s football program. A few other collegiate coaches were in town on Thursday to watch SCAA action at Maple Ridge, for the four-game Football Festival that took place across town.
Though there remains much hay to be put in the barn, both on the field and in the classroom, Cieplicki acknowledged that playing football beyond high school serves as extra motivation.
“I want to play at (university),” he said.
