SAU football falls at home to Point

LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights football team was defeated 40-12 at home by conference rival Point on Saturday afternoon in Laurinburg. The Knights fall to 0-5 (0-2 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Skyhawks improve to 2-6 (2-1 vs AAC opponents) with the victory. Head Coach Robert Curtin boiled down the lopsided score to one thing: losing control in the fourth quarter when winning plays need to be made.

“What made this game look worse than it was in the fourth quarter was discipline, we got tired and committed some facemasks,” Curtin said. “Losing discipline is the difference between a not so good team and a good team.”

The start of the game was very sloppy on both sides. After a St. Andrews three and out, the Skyhawks appeared to be on their way to doing the same until a roughing the kicker penalty on Nick Henderson gave Point a fresh set of downs in Knights territory. Savien Hayes would make sure it didn’t cost the Knights with an interception of Mitchell Gossett and a return out to the 31-yard line. The Skyhawks would get good field position on their next drive thanks to a strip sack of Henry Kanu by Cortez Thomas, which was recovered at the St. Andrews 16-yard line. Adam Sanders would punch it in from two yards out to give Point a 7-0 lead with 8:09 left in the opening frame.

After both teams went three and out on their next possession, the Knights finally got a bit of a flow on offense thanks to a 33-yard completion from Kanu to Devon Roesch, which set up St. Andrews at the Skyhawks 9-yard line. Unfortunately, they would have a short field goal blocked on that drive, meaning they got no points out of it. The Knights defense came to play throughout the day, with John Brown forcing another strip sack at the Point 37-yard line which was recovered by CJ Simpson. The offense could not take advantage, however, as penalties backed them up to 3rd & 20 and Kanu was picked off by Alfred Braxton Jr. The Skyhawks had one good drive where they covered 59 yards over 10 plays and 5:09 of game that got them in the endzone thanks to a 18-yard touchdown reception by Shawn Jones Jr., giving Point a 14-0 lead at the break.

The St. Andrews defense stepped up once again to start the second half, with Henderson getting an interception at the Knights 40-yard line. After the offense went three and out, the Knights got a break when Braxton Jr. fumbled the ensuing punt, which was recovered by Ellison Sandiford at the Point 35-yard line. St. Andrews would take advantage with Rodney Huggins recording a 16-yard carry and Anthony Robinson getting a 15-yard touchdown reception to get the Knights on the board (14-6 with failed two-point fake). This would be the start of a shootout of sorts as the Skyhawks answered right back by covering 75 yards in just over seven minutes with Treyvon Copeland scoring on a two-yard touchdown run. The Knights quickly responded with Huggins getting a 22-yard rush and Kanu completing a 28-yard pass to Roesch before Kanu scored on the ground from nine yards out. The drive covered 61 yards in just 2.5 minutes, making the score 20-12 at the end of 45 minutes.

That would unfortunately be the closest St. Andrews would get to even as Point hit a big 30-yard completion to Nicholas Marien and found some success running the ball with Sanders before Paul Burkly caught a 9-yard touchdown pass to restore their two-score lead early in the fourth quarter. The Skyhawks then tackled punter Raphael Louis at the 1-yard line, making for an easy touchdown run by Sanders. An interception by Marquell Sullivan and a Kwylek Woodham 3-yard score would make the final score look more lopsided than most of the game actually was.

Huggins and Roesch were the stars of the game on offense from a yards perspective for the Knights, recording nine carries for 50 yards and two catches for 61 yards, respectively. Kanu went 7-21 throwing the ball for 97 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Even with the less than stellar stat line, Curtin gave some praise to Kanu after the game and believes he has some good traits that can be a real asset going forward.

“I’m very fond of Henry because he’s a competitor and when I look at his performance, I see progression each and every week,” Curtin said. “He’s a locker room guy and he’s very disciplined but we got to give him more time and options because he’s going to be special one day with the leadership qualities he has.”

Brown was a stat sheet stuffer for St. Andrews on defense, recording 11 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, five tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Collectively they had five sacks as a team and two interceptions while holding the Point passing attack to just 139 yards through the air. Curtin was of course very happy with how his defense played throughout most of the game.

“The defense did exceptionally well, we won the turnover battle, and they did what we asked of them as coaches,” Curtin said. “They came to play again, and I believe we have one of the best defenses in our conference, very proud of our defense and the way they maintained their discipline.”

St. Andrews will hit the road again to face conference rival Reinhardt next Saturday at 1 p.m. Reinhardt currently stands at 3-4 (1-1 in conference games) on the season, most recently picking up a 36-26 home win over Point on Oct. 12. Curtin is not hitting the panic button but rather wants to focus on what needs improvement internally as they head on the road next week.

“We have to find excellence within ourselves and who we are as an organization,” Curtin said. “I’m of the mindset that it’s about us, it’s not about them, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and focus on doing the right things.”