Knights knock off SHP in non-league football game

“That was fun,” Parodi said. “We had a great week of practice. … We played pretty well.”

In the end, Parodi relied on both his offense and his defense to get the job done as Hillsdale (4-0) took the lead with just over five minutes to play.

The Knights defense then got not just one stop, but two, to seal the victory. SHP (2-2) took its ensuing possession at its own 25 and moved down to the Hillsdale 32 before Knights’ safety Dante Allendorf intercepted a pass with 1:36 left to play.

But the Gators had all three timeouts and they eventually forced Parodi to make a decision. Facing a fourth-and-5 at his own 33, Parodi sent his offense back out on the field. But during a night when everything seemed to come up roses for Hillsdale, SHP forced an incomplete pass to take over on downs at the Knights’ 33 with 1:06 left to play.

“We felt like we had seen something (from the SHP defense),” Parodi said in explaining his decision to go for it on fourth down.

“But I felt confident our defense would hold them for the last minute.”

Again, the Knights defense came up big, forcing an incomplete pass on fourth-and-10 to finally ice the victory. It was the culmination of an intense defensive effort from the Knights, who held the Gators to 295 yards of offense. The Knights punctuated the first half with a goal-line stand. Linebacker Jayden Tanega knifed through the line and brought down SHP running back Anthony Noto at the 1-yard line as the time expired in the second quarter and the Knights clinging to a 14-7 lead.

“Their defense is tough,” said SHP head coach Mark Grieb.

In the third quarter, the Gators got Noto loose as they took the third-quarter kickoff and marched 64 yards on eight plays, with Noto doing the bulk of the work. He carried the ball four straight times to start the drive, gaining 49 yards. After an incompletion and a false start, the Gators went back to Noto who finished the job. A 15-yard run took the ball to the Hillsdale 5 and two plays later, Noto punched it in from 3 yards to tie the score at 14-all with 8:26 left in the third quarter.

Noto would go on to finish with 151 yards and score both of SHP’s touchdowns on 21 carries.

“They ran something we haven’t seen,” Parodi said. “We had to adjust our eyes.”

Hillsdale took the ensuing kickoff and moved from its 27 to the SHP 14 before turning the ball over on downs.

But the Hillsdale defense got the ball back, forcing the Gators to punt and the Knights taking over at their 1-yard line.

Hillsdale then embarked on one of its best drives in years. Quarterback Erick Waugh was forced to scramble out of the end zone, stepping out of an ankle tackle along the back end line before turning upfield and gaining a first down. On the next play, Waugh found Kyle King for a 49-yard gain to the Gators’ 40-yard line.

King would finish with five catches for 104 yards.

Three plays later, the Knights faced a fourth-and-2 at the 32 and Waugh picked it up with a designed keeper. The drive was later aided by a personal foul call against the Gators, which moved the ball SHP 14.

On third-and-goal from 7, Parodi got creative. He sent Waugh on a designed rollout to his left, before he pulled up and threw back across the field to a wide open Jack Haywood in the end zone, who hauled in what turned out to be the game-winning score.

It was another stellar outing for Waugh. After throwing for more than 300 yards and four touchdowns last week, he came back Friday night and completed 13-of-21 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns. He also got the job with his feet, running for a team-high 59 yards on 12 carries, almost of which came on scrambles.

“Their quarterback (Waugh) is a helluva a player,” Grieb said. “They did things on offense that gave us problems.”

But it was a Waugh interception, through no real fault of his own, that gave SHP a 7-0 lead. Hillsdale was marching down the field on the opening drive of the game when a Waugh pass was tipped and picked off by SHP’s Jack Barton.

Starting on their own 45, the Gators went 55 yards on eight plays, with Noto punching it in from 3 yards out with just over four minutes to play in the opening quarter.

Hillsdale, however, answered right back. In a precursor to the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter, the Knights went 80 yards on 11 plays in tying the score. They converted one fourth down along the way and on the first play of the second quarter, Waugh hit Haywood on a post pattern, with Haywood snatching the slightly high pass out of the air for the score.

After an exchange of punts, Hillsdale embarked on a drive that would give it the lead at halftime. Starting at the SHP 41, the Knights needed six plays to find the end zone. They overcame a holding penalty and later, facing fourth down at 20, Waugh found Bennett Young on an out pattern. Not only did Young pick up the first down, he slipped the tackle, tip-toed along the sideline and bulled over a defender near the pylon, stretching the ball over the goal line to put the Knights up 14-7.

The half ended with SHP stopped at the 1-yard line.

“Hillsdale did a great job. Hats off to them,” Grieb said. “They forced us to do some thing we need to work on.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to show Jayden Tanega made the stop at the goal line.