The St Mary’s Ryken Knights are building a football program and with the start of any new team, there are growing pains. Despite hard work and dedication by the players, coaches and staff, the Knights got a taste of this on Friday night Sept 17.
Playing in front of a lively packed house, Ryken fell to Archbishop O’Connell 47-12. Coach Bob Harmon is happy with the growth of his team so far this year noting that ‘the WCAC is one of the toughest conferences in the country’ and that his players are ‘working extremely hard to be competitive’.
The Knights had 6 injuries to starters coming into the game including the top 3 running backs on his depth chart. Ryken found holes up the middle of the O’Connell defense but, it was not enough to stave off a running clock in the second half. O’Connell only threw the ball once in the game running the Wing T offense to perfection behind running backs Joshua Trimble, Marvin Stewart and Patrick Simms tallying 2 TD’s each.
Jason Makoutz added one TD for O’Connell. O’Connell’s offense only touched the ball once oin the second half after scoring on a 37 yard pick six and an 80 yard punt return by Trimble who is headed for West Point next year.
The Knights have produced some very good players with 9 scholarships given out to last years graduating class including, Wayne Hicks (Valpraiso), Devin Mackey and Derrick Farrell (Frostburg), Ned Eric (Wabash),and Chris Rixey (Navy Lacrosse). The fans, band and cheerleaders were lively and excited about playing in the beautifil new stadium in Leonardtown.
The Knights hit the road Saturday Sept 25, with a game that will be broadcast on Baynet Radio at St Albans. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. and Pre-game at 12:30 p.m.
