Kris Dearie brought his running game to Friday night’s football game against the St. Joseph Knights. He scored a 40-yard touchdown run in the third quarter then followed that up with a 65-yard touchdown run in the fourth.

But it was too little, too late for the Eagles, who watched the Knights put 21 points on the board in the first quarter alone on their way to a 54-26 victory in the two teams’ opening Los Padres league match up.

While Dearie brought his running game, so did the Knights’ John Sua. Sua was a one-man act for the Knights, scoring all 21 points for his team in the first quarter. He scored off a three-yard run and a one-yard run for two touchdowns. In between those he hauled in an interception for a 51-yard touchdown return.

Dearie said those two touchdowns were bittersweet –– a great performance in a hard to take loss. He limped off the field in the game against King City in the fourth quarter and spent the last minutes of that game standing on the sidelines with a pack of ice on his knee. In that game, the Eagles came away with a 50-14 win.

Friday night, Dearie said he knew he would face a much tougher opponent than the last one he ran against.

“I thought I played as well as I could have under the circumstances,” he said.

Eagles coach Don Crow said the loss was easy to explain.

“You can’t get down 21 to nothing in the first quarter and expect to win a ball game,” he said.

The Eagles managed a touchdown in the second quarter to avoid being shut out in the first half. But that came against a Knights team that just kept scoring, as they took a 31-6 lead at half time.

The Eagles matched the Knights with two touchdowns in the third quarter. The first was a 23-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Horn, followed by a two-point conversion pass from quarter Kaleb Sawdey to Dearie. The second was Dearie’s 40-yard run. The Eagles tried two more conversion attempts following Dearie’s 40 and 65-yard touchdown runs, but both failed.

Dearie rushed five times for 137 yards and two touchdowns. Horn caught four passes for 42 yards. Sawdey was 5-for-17 for 45 yards and two interceptions.

For the Knights, quarterback Gavin Kelly was 5-for-10 for 100 yards, a touchdown and one interception. Ryan Anglin ran 20 times for 152 yards and two touchdowns.

The Eagles rushed 34 times for 238 yards, while the Knights rushed 52 times for 374 yards.

The Eagles (1-3) will be on the road again Friday, Oct. 10 when they travel to Morro Bay to play the Pirates (3-1).





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