EDMONDS — Mountlake Terrace needed every break it could muster to have any chance against Kamiak in last week’s Western Conference 4A South Division clash.

Instead, all of the breaks went the Knights’ way, as Kamiak jumped to a 21-0 first quarter advantage on the way to a 49-14 victory over the Hawks Oct. 24 at Edmonds Stadium.

Knights quarterback Gary Rogers exploited an inexperienced Mountlake Terrace secondary to complete 11 of 20 passes for 169 yards and a season-high four touchdowns.

The Hawks are still missing several players due to injuries and disciplinary actions and Kamiak took full advantage of the situation.

“We had a lot of young kids out there,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Alex Barashkoff. “All of our (defensive backs) are kids that didn’t start at the beginning of the year … there are some pretty inexperienced kids back there. They (Knights) exploited it and that’s what they are supposed to do.”

Rogers connected on a 59-yard touchdown strike to running back Tony Virata on the third play of the game. Mountlake Terrace subsequently fumbled away the ball on its first possession of game, giving the Knights the ball on the Hawk 47.

Rogers then found Virata again on a 12-yard touchdown pass. On Kamiak’s next series, Rogers threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Knowles and the Knights took a 21-0 lead with 1:13 remaining in the first quarter.

“Their line blocked for him. They had a lot of time,” Barashkoff said. “We played man to man in the beginning and they took advantage of that. They jumped right in and did a great job.”

In the second quarter, what was a 30- to 35-yard run by Hawks quarterback Brian Ellersick was called back by the officials, who inadvertently blew the whistle after they apparently thought that Ellersick had handed the ball off to the running back. The senior signal caller instead kept the ball and was well down the sidelines when the officials waved off the play.

Mountlake Terrace nearly picked off a pass from Rogers but the ball bounced right out of the defender’s hands right to Kamiak’s Chris Knight, who sped toward the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown reception to give the Knights a 27-0 halftime lead.

A solid kickoff return gave the Hawks the ball at the Kamiak 49 to start the third quarter. Seven plays later, Mountlake Terrace running back Chris Neal scored on a 6-yard run and Preston Doheney successfully ran the ball in for a 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to 27-8 at the 10:57 mark of the second quarter.

“We just executed better,” Barashkoff said. “We’re going to stick to our game. We’re not going to change anything that we practiced. We had a great drive.”

Kamiak responded with an 18-yard touchdown run by Virata before a string of bad luck turned the game into a blowout.

Mountlake Terrace fumbled away the ball for the second time on its next offensive series and Kamiak’s Chris Munoz returned it 60 yards for a touchdown. Ellersick then had a pass tipped and intercepted, which eventually led to an 11-yard touchdown run by Thomas Callandret.

Neal scored on a 19-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

Mountlake Terrace executed better in the second half, Barashkoff said. The Hawks’ defense switched to zone with some success against Rogers.

“Our kids played with heart,” Barashkoff said. “We’re still missing a lot of kids. A lot of kids will be back and the kids that played, played hard. You can’t take anything away from Kamiak. They have a pretty good football team.”

Ill-timed penalties continued to hurt the Hawks, who had a couple of 30-plus yard gains called back.

“The kids did well in the second half,” Barashkoff said. “We didn’t play well in the first half.”