Knights secure home game

By DAVE CLARK

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- The planets aligned for the Sleepy Eye St. Mary's Knights.

In order to secure a home playoff game, the Knights needed three events to occur Tuesday: a win by LeCenter, a loss by Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial and a victory against the McLeod West Falcons.

The first two happened earlier in the day and the Knights took care of business with a 35-22 victory over the Falcons, setting up a playoff date with LCWM at St. Mary's next Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

"I told the kids before the season that one of my goals was to have a home playoff game," Knights coach Ron Berdan said. "It looked pretty bleak for a while (during the season)."

St. Mary's didn't waste much time lighting up the scoreboard as they brought out their bag of tricks on the third play of the game, as backup quarterback Alan Woitas hit starter Jake Bohnen with a strike that sent Bohnen down the sideline for a 55 yard touchdown. Billy Cook's extra point made it a quick 7-0.

"We got a couple of breaks on that first TD," Berdan said. "The ball was almost picked and Jake banged around a couple of tackles, then had some nice open field running."

The Knights second touchdown was set up with a nice 20-yard pass to Andrew Woitas where Woitas went out-of-bounds at the Falcons 5. Bohnen then took a quarterback draw the final yards and added another Cook extra point for a 14-0 lead.

Another 20-yard throw, this time to wide open Alan Woitas, set up St. Mary's third touchdown. With Woitas going down at the Falcons one, Bohnen snuck in for his second score and the third good Cook extra point and the Knights extended their lead to 21-0.

Alex Krzmarzick scored St. Mary's fourth touchdown with a 20-yard run from scrimmage towards the end of the half and Cook kept his perfect record with a fourth good extra point and it was 28-0 Knights.

However, the Falcons showed some life at the very end of the half. McLeod West made it down to the Knights 5-yard line and on the last play of the second quarter, Alan Woitas batted down a Travis Wendorff pass to save the first half shutout and kill the rally.

"That was a pivotal play," said Berdan. "The Falcons could have come back in the second half with some momentum. That was pretty big."

The Knights took the second half kickoff, but Bohnen was intercepted on the third play by Charles Rettig, who brought the ball to the St. Mary's 25. Eight plays later, the Falcons scored on a 6-yard pass from Wendorff to Dustin Klabunde. A two-point run by Brian Duehn was good and it was 28-8.

There were no mistakes on the Knights next possession as they burned 7:25 off the clock with a 19-play, 72-yard drive that resulted in a beautiful back of the end zone catch of a Bohnen pass by Chris Ibberson. Cook's fifth extra point made it 35-8.

The Falcons scored twice in the final five minutes, the first a 10-yard run by Wendorff, the second a pass from Wendorff to Klabunde with four seconds left.

The Knights end their regular season with a 4-4 record, while the Falcons end at 3-5.

Dave Clark can be reached at sports@nujournal.com