JEFFERSON TWP — Those in the crowd overlooking Knoch’s gridiron Friday night watched a return to regularly scheduled programming — with an unexpected star of the show.

The Knights opened Allegheny 6 Conference play by defeating Deer Lakes, 41-21, as senior Ethan Alwine was thrust unexpectedly into offensive action, rushing for 111 yards and three touchdowns on 13 gives.

Starting tailback Tony Nicolazzo didn’t have a carry on the night, as he was injured during the opening series of the contest and returned to the sideline after halftime on crutches.

“I’ve got to give props to Tony,” said Alwine, who also played linebacker and was in on two sacks. “It was definitely a toll on the body. I’ve never really played offense and defense, back to back. … It was a different experience back there.”

During the first possession of the game, the offensive miscues of last Friday’s shutout loss at Elizabeth Forward seemed to stalk the Knights (5-1, 1-0) into this week. Quarterback Codi Mullen was sacked twice in a three-play span, leading to a punt.

“We weren’t disjointed tonight,” Burchett said. “First series, we made some mistakes, but we had people running wide-open. Then, I think we scored on the next five possessions.”

The first of those successful marches was kicked off by Mullen intercepting his counterpart, the Lancers’ Derek Burk, three plays later and capped by a 19-yard run up the middle by Alwine.

“I’ve got to give it up to my offensive line,” Alwine said. “They really put the work in, let me get runs, let me do my thing. Same with Codi Mullen. He really read the people right.”

After a Deer Lakes (4-2, 0-1) three-and-out, the Knights went 60 yards on eight plays and Alwine punched it in from four yards out.

Alwine entered the night having only touched the ball on offense 12 times this go-round. Before his performance, he’d totaled nine carries for 52 yards on the year.

“He’s a newcomer to football,” Burchett said. “This is only his second year of organized football. He was a soccer player forever. This kid, the sky is the limit. … Once he puts it all together, he’s a scholarship football player.”

While also directing a read option, Mullen got rid of the football quickly and accurately. Jackson Bauman was a dependable receiver, pulling in eight passes for 105 yards and a toe-tap touchdown in the third frame.

“We did not run anything crazy,” Burchett said. “We really skimmed down everything and really just executed our base plays. We ran, I think, like, 10 plays tonight. It wasn’t anything like this intricate play calling from some guru coach. We just called the same stuff because they were in the same coverage.

“ I just found out they (Deer Lakes) were the second-best defense in the WPIAL coming in. I think they were giving up, like, nine points a game. We did some good stuff tonight.”

Alwine replied to the Lancers’ first score — a 50-yard pass from Burk to Zach Grant in the second quarter — with a 45-yard rumble just over two minutes later. Oh, and that possession began on a 30-yard kick return by Alwine.

Mullen made it a 21-point game going into halftime with a 19-yard rush the next time Knoch got the ball.

Deer Lakes put together a seven-play, 91-yard scoring drive out of the intermission. Burk found Wayne Love deep before the frame was through. The visitors had 10 penalties that cost them 100 yards, though, which didn’t help their cause.

Wyatt Foster helped Brady Pflugh put an exclamation point on the win with a strip-sack on Burk with under a minute to play. Pflugh scooped it up and raced down the away sideline to cap the scoring.

Parker Anderson was also in on a few sacks during the night.

“We stayed in our base defense and got pressure with four,” Burchett said. “That’s huge. When you can do that, you have kids like Ethan Alwine that can get home on the quarterback. … That lets us play base defense. That’s huge for us. A couple of dumb plays got behind us, ball over our head, it is what it is.

“We had seven or eight sacks. It felt like he (Burk) was under pressure all night.”

Deer Lakes 0 7 14 0 — 21

Knoch 14 14 7 6 — 41

First Quarter

K — Ethan Alwine 19 run (Kannon Trofimuk kick), 6:52

K — Alwine 19 run (Trofimuk kick), 1:49

Second Quarter

DL — Zach Grant 50 pass from Derek Burk (Noah Shurina kick), 10:20

K — Alwine 45 run (Trofimuk kick), 8:09

K — Codi Mullen 19 run (Trofimuk kick), 3:14

Third Quarter

DL — Zier Williams 1 run (Shurina kick), 7:29

K — Jackson Bauman 12 pass from Mullen (Trofimuk kick), 4:58

DL — Wayne Love 35 pass from Burk (Shurina kick), 0:53

Fourth Quarter

K — Brady Pflugh 45 fumble return (kick missed), 0:48

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Deer Lakes, Zier Williams 13-67, Derek Burk 16-63, Aiden Fletcher 3-36. Knoch, Ethan Alwine 13-111, Codi Mullen 12-61, Brady Pflugh 1-1.

Passing: Deer Lakes, Derek Burk16-31-222-1. Knoch, Codi Mullen 15-21-197-0.

Receiving: Deer Lakes, Wayne Love 4-64, Zach Grant 2-58, Nathaniel Moore 5-48, Ryan Cochran 3-44, Aiden Fletcher 1-5, Zier Williams 1-3. Knoch, Jackson Bauman 8-105, Kaden Spencer 2-32, Brady 1-27, Dylan Pinkerton 2-18, Ethan Alwine 1-8, Sam Skurka 1-7, Codi Mullen 1-0.