The Knights won their homecoming game against Forest Park 18-7 on Sept. 18 to win back-to-back games for the first time since October 2023. The Knights are now second in Region 4-AAAA, their highest region placement since 2016.

“We are where we are supposed to be as far as evaluation,” head coach Calvin Arnold said. “Right now we are satisfied with where we are in the region. The region games are what really counts toward the playoffs.”

Both teams’ offenses started slowly; the first score of the game came when a 29-yard pass by Forest Park quarterback Lamar Rose set up a 1-yard touchdown rush in the middle of the second quarter. Head coach Calvin Arnold said the Knights missed key scoring opportunities early, giving Forest Park the lead until the end of third quarter.

We gotta do a better job making things happen,” Arnold said. “We gotta do a better job of making plays when we get a chance to because we left a lot of points off on the board.”

Senior quarterback Noah Williams believed the lack of early points came from a slow start from the offense causing numerous mistakes, including an interception from him in the second quarter.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score early on,” Williams said.

”We had miscommunication and I made bad reads, so just clean that all up because we know what we’re able to do.”

The Knights responded with a field goal to make the score 7-3 going into halftime. Junior defensive end Mylik Benoit said the coach’s speech and adjustments during halftime changed the tune of the game.

“The coaches gave us a great speech at half time and they got us fired up,” Benoit said. “They made adjustments to what obviously wasn’t working.”

After the half, the Knights scored twice near the end of the third quarter. Senior kicker, punter and linebacker Nick Kaledin blocked a punt for a safety, and on the ensuing kickoff senior Kyrie Blackman returned the ball 65-yards to the Forest Park 15-yard line. This set up Williams to connect with senior wide receiver Kentrell White for a 12-yard touchdown, putting the Knights in the lead 12-7.

“We had a great return in good field position and I knew we had to score,” Williams said. “The O-line did a great job blocking, giving me enough time to read the field and I just threw a good ball and we scored.”

Arnold praised the special teams unit for the field position they were able to grant both the offensive and defensive units.

“The kickoffs and kick off returns were big,” Arnold said. “We had a big punt return. Those plays really stood out, because they gave us a great position.”

Williams said offensive line injuries have disrupted offensive chemistry, something the team hopes to improve on.

“We’ve had a new line for the past two weeks because two weeks ago Brady [Crep] got injured, then last week in Charles Drew, Ethan [McIntosh] got injured this week during practice,” Williams said. “I think in the fourth quarter, we were trying to rush the game a little bit and we had just had like fast snaps and just a little bit unpredictable overall. These are just things we’re gonna clean up as the season goes on.”

Junior linebacker D’Eric Mitchell believes the homecoming atmosphere boosted the team’s performance.

“I feel like the crowd did play a big role and they actually stayed near the end of the game,” Mitchell said. “At the end of the game, there was still a decent crowd left, I think that helped us pull away with the win, knowing that we had fans and supporters behind us.”

The Knights sealed the game with two final field goals from Kaledin, giving him perfect accuracy in field goals on the night. While Mitchell is happy about the win, he believes they should not jump to conclusions because of a worse performance compared to both last week against Drew and the win against Forest Park last season.

“I’m not gonna say it feels the best just because like the way we won 18 to 7, and last year we put up 29, so this game was just really sloppy,” Mitchell said. “I’m glad that we won, but I’m not satisfied with this win because of the way we played. We could have played at  a much higher level. Last week we just won 33-6 against a team that was the same difficulty.”

The Knights are now 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the region, trailing only Creekside on a tie breaker. The team has the playoffs in its sights and has a hopeful path into the postseason.

“I think we have a great team, we have a lot of talent and if we just clean up, I think the playoffs are coming,” Williams said.