St. Mary's rolls past Wolverines

The St. Mary's Knights used their explosive combination of big play weapons to run past the White Pines Wolverines.

Backed by 313 yards rushing, 146 yards passing and six touchdowns from different players, the Knights drove past the Wolverines 41-10 on Friday night at Rocky DiPietro Field in high school football senior division action.

Despite an impressive 267 ground attack by the Wolverines, costly turnovers allowed St. Mary's to grab an early lead and build on it throughout the game.

After opening the game with a 63 yard drive, the Wolverines fumbled and turned the ball over on the St. Mary's seven yard line. The next play, Chris Lebel busted open a 103 yard touchdown run for the Knights.

On the next offensive play for White Pines, the ball was turned over again which set up a 50 yard touchdown reception by Andrew Baziuk from quarterback Anthony Amadio.

After a Wolverines 21 yard field goal by Henri Kristensen, Andrew Posteraro hauled in a 57 yard pass from Amadio to give the Knights a 20-3 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Knights would continue their trend of scoring quickly and often as Dan Esson plowed through for a five yard touchdown run.

White Pines answered with a touchdown early in the fourth quarter as Gary Leith scored on an eight yard run before Jordan Casola added to the Knights lead with an eight yard scoring run.

On the kickoff following Casola's major, White Pines fumbled and the Knights' Phil Ruicci took the ball and ran in from 12 yards out to complete the scoring.

Posteraro nailed five of six convert attempts for the Knights while Kristensen added a convert for the Wolverines.

The win improves St. Mary's record to 2-0 while the Wolverines fall to 0-2.

Lebel led the Knights with 144 yards rushing on five carries while Casola added 40 yards on two attempts. Amadio completed four of eight attempts for 146 yards.

Defensively for St. Mary's, Marco Palumbo recorded nine tackles while Giancarlo Perra made eight. Conan Sawko made seven tackles and an interception while Jason Amadio added seven tackles and a fumble recovery. Jeff Buchan also recovered a fumble.

Alonzo Clarke paced the Wolverines offense with 159 yards rushing on 21 carries. Chris Tulloch added 59 yards on nine carries and Leith carried 12 times for 49 yards.

Defensively, Matt Ritchie, who also recovered a fumble, Jeff Doan and Anthony Silvano made four tackles each.

Week two action concludes on Saturday afternoon at Rocky DiPietro Field as the Bawating Braves (0-1) tackle the St. Basil Saints (0-1) beginning at 1 p.m.

*** JUNIOR:

In junior division action on Friday afternoon, the St. Mary's Knights were led by three touchdowns from Michael Esson in a 39-6 win over White Pines.

Two of Esson's majors came along the ground while another came on a kickoff return. Dane Brason, Kyle Barry and Michael Martens also scored for the Knights while Jeff Pellegrino kicked three converts.

Matt Santos kicked two field goals for the Wolverines.

PHOTO: Wolverines quarterback Justin Wensley (#9) feels the heat from St. Mary's defender Max Fera (#81).