McKEES ROCKS — The Knoch High School football team couldn't slow the runaway train that was Montour's offense Friday night.

Montour piled up the points on the ground and in the air to defeat the Knights, 35-3, in a conference game at Montour High School.

Knoch coach Frank Whalen noted that fatigue played a factor in the Knights' defensive struggles.

“We were on the field defensively way too much,” he said.

Knoch (1-4, 1-3) held its own with the Spartans (4-1, 4-1) for the first few drives, forcing a punt and then driving into Montour territory.

However, facing fourth-and-3 at Montour's 35 in the first quarter, the Knights opted to punt.

“We'd been working on our rugby-style punt,” Whalen said. “We thought maybe (punter Jake Herrit) could pin them down inside, and the ball hit off the side of his foot.”

The muffed punt gave Montour the ball at its own 34.

The Spartans began to pick up speed on that drive.

On a third-and-13 play, Montour's Torry Fisher turned a short screen pass from quarterback Kavon Martin into a 52-yard touchdown to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead.

While Knoch failed to get much offense going, Montour struck again when Brandon Lipford ran a sweep to the left and dashed 21 yards to the end zone.

The Knights set up Montour with good field position after Jake Herrit's run on fourth-and-1 at Knoch's 41 came up inches short of the first down.

Whalen commented on the early-game gamble, stating that the ultimate goal in mind was victory.

“We're going to try to win football games,” he said.

Montour took over and took five plays to get to pay-dirt, scoring on Morman's 5-yard run to take a 21-0 lead.

Morman finished with 13 carries for 70 yards and completed 10-of-15 passes for 172 yards.

“(Martin) is a nice player,” said Montour coach Lou Cerro. “He does a lot of things for us on both sides of the football.”

Montour scored one more time in the first half, when Morman found Ronnie Stevenson for the 5-yard touchdown pass for the 28-0 lead.

Knoch's lone first-half score was a 20-yard field goal by Matt Gore late in the second quarter that followed multiple completions by Herrit.

However, the Spartans never had their lead threatened in the second half and were able to ride their lead comfortably to victory.

Whalen said the mistakes Knoch made, including losing three fumbles, were costly.

“Offensively, we started off the second half, we had a couple of nice drives going,” Whalen said. “Then we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers there.”

Knoch 0 3 0 0 — 3

Montour 7 21 0 7 — 35

First Quarter

M — Fisher 52 pass from Morman (Nolan Hutter kick), 3:06

Second Quarter

M — Lipford 21 run (Hutter kick), 9:24

M — Morman 5 run (Hutter kick), 6:01

M — Stevenson 5 pass from Morman (Hutter kick), 4:59

K — Matt Gore 20 field goal, :22

Fourth Quarter

M — Dante Pesutti 8 run (Hutter kick), 8:36

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Knoch, Ivan Stapchuck 15-60, Jake Herrit 15-31, AJ Karenbauer 6-8, Chase Mullen 2-7, Noah Cetnar 2-6, Matt Goodlin 2-6, James Johnston 2-2. Montour, Morman 13-70, Lipford 2-23, Brayden Jones 8-22, Dustin Snyder 2-10, Ronald Deshantz 1-9, Anthony Tambellini 1-8, Presutti 1-8, Jaxon Schrenker 1-7

Passing: Knoch, Jake Herrit 3-14-48-0. Montour, Morman 10-15-172-0

Receiving: Knoch, AJ Karenbauer 1-22, Jared Schrecengost 1-17, Nick Martin 1-8. Montour, Schrenker 3-29, Stevenson 3-16, Lipford 2-45, Fisher 1-52, Snyder 1-18