As the school year gets rolling so does the SMB Wolfpack. On Sep. 3, the team beat the Saint Paul Harding Knights in a special Thursday night edition of Friday Night Lights in a resounding fashion, 57-26, to move to 3-0 for the season.

The Wolfpack came out and took a 14 point lead 2:05 into the first quarter. Senior Michael O’Shea opened up the scoring with a five yard touchdown run and followed that up with a ten yard TD run not twenty seconds later after a fumble recovery by junior Mark Ademite, with the sack fumble being credited to senior Jake Richardson (MA).

Harding was able to respond quickly with a rushing touchdown from Benjamin Thompson, the first given up by the Wolfpack defense this year. The first quarter set the tone for the game, with the Wolfpack dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The defense was able to sack Harding quarterback Shad Kebaso 3 times, and the offensive line didn’t allow the Harding defense to get even a tackle for a loss the entire game.

The Wolfpack also thoroughly dominated the rushing game, outrushing the Knights 336 yards to 216. The Wolfpack was led by freshman Siegel Howard (MA) who ran his way to 163 yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns. This was Howard’s second consecutive 100 yard rushing game, but his first two touchdowns on the year. This potent rush attack forced the defense to creep up and at times the Knights went without a safety over the top, leaving senior Dalante Peyton one on one against a corner. This match up proved fruitful for Peyton late on in the second quarter when Wolfpack quarterback Samuel Pickerign (MA) lofted a ball deep down the sideline to Peyton, who caught it in stride at the Harding 45 yard line and coasted to the 64 yard touchdown, his third TD catch on the year. This was also when the Wolfpack started separating themselves from the Knights, because on the ensuing kickoff, they were able to pull off the surprise onside kick. Then, Siegel Howard ran it in on the next play from 28 yards out. Of the first four possessions in the second quarter, the Wolfpack had three of them and scored on each of them. Harding was able to score a touchdown before the half with a touchdown run from Benjamin Howard which made the game 36-14 at the half.

With the spurt in the second quarter the Wolfpack played very loose third and fourth quarters, and all starters were taken out for about the last five minutes. Even senior Solomon Johnson got two snaps in the waning minutes of the game. He was a part of a team tackle on his first snap and got hung out to dry on a read option play for his second snap; he didn’t re-enter the game. Johnson said of the experience

“It was fun to play and fun to win,” Dalante Peyton, who is making his return to football after taking last year off, said after the game, “It’s really good now to have a quarterback that is tall and has time to get me the ball in a place where I can excel.”

Peyton is has done just that with three receiving touchdowns in the last two weeks.

The Wolfpack plays the 0-3 New Life Academy Eagles next week under the lights at 7:00 PM at Gordy Aamoth Jr Stadium on The Blake School-Hopkins Campus.