It's Knight time in the south. The Holy Trinity Academy Knights advanced to the provincial final for the first time in seven years after scoring 21 unanswered to outlast the Hunting Hills Lightning 28-13 in the Tier II Football Alberta semifinal, Saturday at Shouldice Park. “Our coaches talked to us at halftime, they pumped us up and gave us courage to do it,” said Knights wide receiver Nick Dielissen. “That we were beating ourselves up and that we were the better team. After that everyone started to play better. “It’s the first time since 2011 that we’ve made it to provincials, we’ve never won. That’s been our goal since we got the playoffs, get to provincials and be the first team to do it.” HTA gets its shot at the provincial title on Nov. 24 in Fort McMurray versus the No. 1 ranked Lloydminster Barons, who overpowered St. Joe’s 38-15 in the other semifinal. It took a brilliant second-half performance to ensure Lightning wasn’t going to strike twice versus the Knights. Hunting Hills, who took the regular season meeting with HTA by a 19-7 score, jumped out to a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Knights got on the scoreboard in dramatic fashion as quarterback Ben Leggett narrowly avoided a sack and launched a rocket pass up field for Dielissen to grab and sprint into the end-zone for a 70 yard connection. “I was surprised he didn’t get tackled,” Dielissen said. “It was a perfect pass by Ben. I heard their guy behind me and just thought I’m not letting him catch me and just kicked it into high gear.” Penalties kept the Knights offence largely in check in the first-half. The halftime message from head coach Matt Hassett centred around taking advantage of HTA’s depth at receiver with the likes of Dielissen, Riley Dallaire, Michael Peloso and Noah Gutek providing options down field. “There were things we thought we could take advantage of passing, they kept crowding the line of scrimmage and trying to blitz,” Hassett said. “We’re hard to match up against because we’ve got four guys who can fly. They were trying to double certain guys and it left the other guys wide open.” Gutek took over behind centre in the second half, using his considerable speed out of the pocket and strong arm to great effect. “Noah is a little bit better when he can see the defence where Ben has played a bit more football and he’s really good at seeing things right away,” Hassett said. “We’ve got two great quarterbacks and we try to use them both because they’re a little bit different and it gives that different dimension that makes it really tough on the defence.” To start the second half, Hunting Hills got its ground game going and found its way into the end-zone in short order on the first drive of the third quarter on a 15-yard scamper from Dolan Hills to take the 13-7 lead. Fifteen minutes away from seeing their provincial dreams dashed, the Knights found a second wind in the fourth-quarter. After Peloso made a terrific second effort run to get the Knights to third and inches, Gutek converted on third down on a 15-yard run and on the next play meandered into the end-zone for a 5-yard touchdown as HTA regained the lead at 14-13 with the extra-point. There was no looking back after that. On the next drive, Gutek feathered a pass for a wide-open Dielissen who again put on the afterburners for an 85-yard touchdown with 7:03 left in regulation. Hunting Hills had time on its side to mount a comeback, but ran into a Knights defensive unit that did their homework. With the Lightning driving, Peloso climbed the ladder for his first of two interceptions in the quarter to give the Knights the ball back at midfield. “I watched like five or six games of film on him (quarterback Haidan Brown) and every single time he went deep he didn’t really look off a lot on the safeties,” said Peloso, a Grade 10 student. “I was just reading his eyes. He threw it a little wobbly and I got it.” Peloso added some extra sizzle to the second pick, grabbing the ball out of the air, finding a seam and following his blocks down field into the end-zone for the pick-six in the final minute of regulation. “I wanted to score,” Peloso said. “I knew it was a close game and that a score would close it out. I just hustled, made a few guys miss and got in for the TD.” After taking care of business in the south, the attention turns north. The Knights and Barons square off on provincial weekend in Fort Mac with the Tier I final featuring St. Francis and Harry Ainlay, Holly Rosary versus Cochrane in the Tier III final along with St. Paul and Canmore locking horns for Tier IV bragging rights. “It’s awesome. It’s going to be so much fun, I can’t wait. It’s going to be a great atmosphere there and I hope we come away with the W,” Peloso said. “Right now, it’s pretty exciting, but we have to back to work tomorrow and keep grinding.”
