CM wins on 73-yard bomb

On, Friday night, the Knights kicked off their 2010 football season against the Lynn Classical Rams with a thrilling 21-14 come from behind win.

Knight's quarterback AJ Doyle came out of the gates hot and opened up the defense for running back William Earl to operate. The junior running back followed up a 20 yard run with another 19 yard touchdown run filled with jukes and spin moves.

The Rams' offense consisted of a heavy diet of run plays. The reasoning for that became obvious when the first pass they threw was picked off by Donovan Henry.

One thing about the Rams' offense that seriously hurt the Knights was their ability to run long, time consuming drives. To end the second quarter they capped off a 6 minute drive with a pass to the sideline that turned into a 40 yard touchdown.

The Rams started the second half on their own 3 yard line and the Knights took advantage by forcing a safety and tying it up at 8.

Things kept getting better when junior Armani Reeves returned the punt on the safety to the 29 yard line. The offense didn't move much from here on for the Knights. Doyle ran for 10 yards early in the drive but after three consecutive failed runs the Knights were forced to kick a field goal.

Senior Tom Byrnes nailed the 17 yard field goal to give the Knights an 11-8 lead.

The Rams refused to go down quietly and connected on a 24 yard pass to get into the red zone to end the third quarter. The Knights fought hard to keep the Rams out of the end zone but eventually they got in on a two yard run to go up 14-11.

The Rams got greedy and tried an onside kick but it backfired horribly when it didn't go 10 yards, giving the Knights the ball on the Rams' 45 yard line.

The Knights' running game was slowed to a crawl in the second half and they faced a 4th & 2 situation, arguably with the game on the line. Doyle and Reeves came up big for the first time on a pass to the sideline for a first down to keep the drive alive. Later in the drive, after escaping a heavy pass rush AJ Doyle showed a pure will to win as he refused to go down for 10 yards, setting up another field goal from Byrnes with 4:23 left to play. As he usually does, Byrnes drilled the 23 yarder and tied it up at 14.

Senior captain John Gorman sacked the Rams' quarterback with 1:50 left as the Knights defense was trying to force overtime. They would end up doing one better as senior Dimitri Claude intercepted a pass intended to the sideline and gave the Knights the ball on their own 40 yard line with 1:01 left in the game.

With the ball and a chance to steal a win, Doyle escaped a rush and broke free for major yards before being thrown down far out of bounds, a dirty tackle that would cause a lot of pushing and shoving on the CM sideline. Despite that dirty play, a block in the back put the Knights back on their own 27 yard line with just 35 seconds left.

After a couple failed plays, it happened.

Doyle dropped back and connected with Armani Reeves for a 73 yard touchdown that sent the crowd into a frenzy. After crossing the goal line Armani immediately looked for the ref and humbly handed him the ball. Then he and the rest of teammates went crazy. I've been to a lot of high school football games and I've never seen a game end like that.

Another interception from Donovan Henry sealed the game and the Knights escaped with a jaw dropping 21-14 victory.

The Knights won without both Cam Williams and Fabrice Rateau, two integral parts of the team.

AJ Doyle showed poise that he didn't have last season and he seemed much more confident in the pocket. I asked him about the game winning touchdown pass and what was going through his mind as the play developed.

"I didn't see the pass get completed because I got hit, but then I heard the crowd go nuts and knew the game was over. Nobody can catch him (Armani Reeves)."

After Friday night I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would disagree.

Completing that play meant more than football to Reeves. He recalled saying to himself, "I got to do this for my grandfather, so please let me catch this," he said. (Reeves' grandfather had passed away recently.)

Next week, the Knights will play Haverhill in the Fox 25 game of the week. Although their win against Lynn Classical was as exhilarating as a win can get, I'm sure the Knights would rather not do it the hard way next time.

Mike Slonina '11