The Sussex Central High School football team didn't need the win, but head coach John Wells wishes his team had played better as it heads into next weekend's Delaware Division I state tournament.

The Golden Knights concluded their regular season with a 25-14 nonconference victory at Christiana on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2001, to reach the state tournament for the second year in a row with a 9-1 record.

Official pairings will be announced by the state tournament committee on Sunday, but it looks like the Knights will be the third seed at second-seeded Dover in the first round, while top seed Newark should face fourth-seeded William Penn in the other first rounder.

The Knights lost to Dover 34-32 during the regular season. Dover clinched the Henlopen Conference Northern Division crown and its first unbeaten regular season since 1972 with a 44-2 victory over Caesar Rodney on Friday, Nov. 16.

Against Christiana, the Knights, banged up in several key positions, sputtered against Christiana early on.

Starting fullback and defensive end Orlando Farrow, battling knee, ankle and achilles injuries all season, played sparingly. Tight end Jesse Makowski, in the hospital this week with tonsilitis, played only at linebacker. And lineman A.J. Rovillard didn't practice until Thursday this week due to a knee injury.

"We don't have any excuses," said Wells. "Christiana came out and played us tough. I sure hope our boys weren't overlooking them knowing our status (for the state tournament), that winning or losing didn't matter."

Tied 6-6 at halftime and trailing 14-6 in the third quarter, the Knights began to come back behind split end Andrew Weatherly, halfback Jonathan Ricketts, and quarterback David Pusey.

Weatherly scored on a 52-yard run in the third period to bring the Knights within 14-12, then hauled in a 74-yard touchdown pass from Pusey for an 18-14 Knight lead in the fourth quarter.

Ricketts, who scored earlier on a 3-yard run, tacked on an 8-yard run in the fourth quarter to ice the win.

Pusey completed 5 of 8 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown but tossed two interceptions. Weatherly caught 3 passes for 86 yards and ran 3 times for 66 more. Ricketts rushed 10 times for 40 yards and caught a pass for 15 yards. Spencer Booth caught a pass for 9 yards.

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