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American Fork junior Lewis Knecht (7) celebrates with junior Preston Osborne during the Region 3 game against in American Fork on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork and Skyridge players battle for the ball during the Region 3 game in American Fork on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork junior Lewis Knecht (second from left) leads the team off the field after the Region 3 game against Skyridge in American Fork on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork and Skyridge players battle for the ball during the Region 3 game in American Fork on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Skyridge

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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It was the type of performance that gives opponents nightmares.

American Fork junior Lewis Knecht is an excellent player and everyone in Region 3 knows it, but he took his game to another level in Wednesday’s league-opener against Skyridge in American Fork.

“He’s doing well,” Caveman head coach Casey Waldron said. “The thing that’s different this year about Lewis is he’s starting to share the ball and it’s striking fear in opponents. They’re used to him getting the ball over the top, which was very predictable. He’s being a lot more creative with his runs and in the final third so it’s fun to watch him evolve as a player.”

From the outset, Knecht was tenacious and relentless, battling for every ball he could get close to.

It didn’t take long for that to swing things in American Fork’s favor.

In the seventh minute, he found an opening on the left side and fired a hard shot at the Falcon net. It was blocked, but the ball bounced to junior Preston Osborne who blasted it in.

That was the beginning of a Cavemen offensive barrage that resulted in an impressive 9-1 win over Skyridge.

“We expected a good game out of our boys but we know Skyridge is a good team,” Waldron said. “You feel bad when you mercy rule a team but you’ve got to enjoy those opportunities as well.”

Knecht said he felt like American Fork came out with the right mindset and that facilitated having such a strong performance.

“Last year we had a tough time being positive because so many things didn’t go how we wanted them to go,” Knecht said. “We wanted to be focused on being positive today, about not getting on each other. I think that made a big difference.”

Knecht certainly played an elite game. That first goal was one of the only ones in the game where he didn’t get on the stat sheet.

Here are his impressive accomplishments:

• In the 15th minute, he set up the second Caveman goal by slotting a perfect pass to where junior Jayden Brown was running in behind the defense for his first assist.
• Eight minutes later, he lofted a corner kick to where junior Demitri Larsen was ready to head it in.
• In the 29th minute, Knecht dribbled through multiple defenders near the end line, then cut the ball back to where junior Miller Hall was slicing in to score.
• Three minutes later, he found his own opening and rifled a left-footed shot for a goal.
• In the second half, he first slipped the ball across the goal for junior Nathan Sanchez to get on the board, then followed it up two minutes later by finding Osborne for his second goal.
• He capped the day with one final goal, ending the contest five minutes before the clock ran out.

Knecht’s two-goal, five-assist day is certainly one to savor but he was quick to credit the team as a whole for creating the opportunities.

“My assists are good and my goals are good, but it’s just my team,” Knecht said. “They’re always just feeding me the ball and they’re smart on the ball. They don’t ever force it my direction, which is good. If the side is open to play to me, they play to me and if it’s not, they keep going the other way. I think that the fact that the game isn’t driven on me, it opens up a lot of spaces.”

Waldron lauded Knecht for finding ways to improve and become a greater asset for the team.

“It is a little bit of coaching, like ‘hey, if you don’t get the ball of your foot, you’re going to come sit with us on the bench,'” Waldron said. ‘Some of it is just leadership. Today was the day we actually finalized our captains and he was made one of the captains. I think part of having that mantle is that he’s got to lead by example.  I think a little bit of everything has helped: maturity, leadership and then the coaches hounding him.”

American Fork knows it has some tough games ahead and needs to be ready.

“We’ve taken a big step in confidence and scoring a lot of goals,” Waldron said. “If you were to take a snapshot of the fifth game this year compared to fifth game last year, we were struggling to score goals. Now we had nine goals and we might be at like 27 or 30 total goals in five games, which is awesome. But we’re still not quite there. We haven’t hit our full stride.”

The Cavemen (5-0) next host Westlake on Friday at 5 p.m. while Skyridge (2-4) plays at Lehi the same day at 7 p.m.

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