From the Kentwood Conquerors’ point of view, there were no surprises about what Auburn did on the football field last Friday night.
No surprises – except for one.
The Conks couldn’t keep the Trojans from doing it.
Auburn ran the football 48 times, and moved forward on 44 of those carries. By the end of the night, the Trojans had outgained Kentwood by nearly 300 yards, and had outscored the Conquerors by three touchdowns, posting a 28-7 South Puget Sound League North Division victory at Auburn Memorial Stadium.
“They’re well coached, and they kind of play to their strengths,” Kentwood coach Rex Norris said after his came up short in its league opener and dropped to 1-1 for the season. “Any time you have big, strong kids like that, they’re going to make plays. They didn’t do anything we weren’t expecting. We had some interior problems, but we fixed that, then (the Trojans) adjusted.
“It was hard even to get the ball,” Norris added.
Auburn was credited for 408 yards. Kentwood logged just 116.
“How often does Kentwood give up even 200 yards, much less 400? Our kids did a good job of blocking,” Trojans coach Gordon Elliott said. “As many young guys as we have playing (Auburn has at least half a dozen sophomores on the field almost every play), they’re getting used to high school football real quick.”
Kentwood got into the end zone just once all night – and that came when the Conquerors’ defense was on the field.
Down 13-0 at halftime, the Conks took the second half kickoff, moved from its own 24 to its 49 in eight plays, but had to punt on fourth-and-7, putting Auburn in business on its own 28.
That’s when the Trojans decided to step out of the box for a play. This time, Carlo Lavoie launched a pass down the right flank. Darrius Coleman stepped in front, picked it off, and rambled down the sideline for the touchdown. Matt Bell’s PAT brought the Conquerors within 13-7.
That was still the score at the outset of the fourth quarter when Kentwood had to punt it away. Auburn converted, going 61 yards in eight plays to make it 21-7. Austen Embody had the big run, going 22 yards down the right side before being knocked out of bounds at the Conqueror 1. A penalty flag was thrown against KW, but Auburn took the play, and Gouveia finished the drive on the next snap to make it 19-7. Young then ran in the two-point conversion, pushing it to a two-touchdown margin with 7:35 left.
“We were prepared. We definitely had our defensive game plan. They just outplayed us today,” Kentwood senior quarterback Luke Angevine said. “We just have to come back (Thursday night) against Tahoma and forget about this and play hard.”
Kentwood had a couple of near-misses, including a pass off the hands in the end zone, and a big run by Darrius Coleman that was called back because of a holding penalty. Coleman had taken the ball from the KW 28 all the way to around the Auburn 30 before getting shoved out of bounds by Lavoie when the flag flew.
“We missed two wide-open touchdowns,” Norris said. “If you don’t take advantage of those, you’re going to get beat.”
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