Ben Woods threw for 440 yards and four touchdowns, leading Kent-Meridian High School to a 42-36 come-from-behind victory over Tahoma in a South Puget Sound League Northeast 4A game last Saturday at French Field.
The win sets up a showdown between the Royals (3-0 in league, 5-1 overall) and Kentwood (2-0, 5-1) for the division lead. Kickoff is 7 p.m. Friday at French Field.
“This game means a lot for a lot of reasons,” said K-M coach Brett Allen of this weekend’s showdown. “There’s the (Claude) French trophy (emblematic of the top Kent football team), No. 1 seed at stake, division title at stake. The fact that it’s got this much laying on the line makes it that much bigger.”
Against Tahoma, Kent-Meridian trailed 36-21 in the third quarter before rallying for the victory.
Woods hit Vinnie Malietufa for a 23-yard touchdown, pulling the Royals to within 36-27 late in the third quarter. Woods then found Emmanuel Daigbe on a 4-yard scoring strike to cut the Bears’ lead to 36-34 with 8:42 left in the game.
Gabe Gallman’s 4-yard TD run and two-point conversion smash pushed the Royals in front to stay, 42-36, with 6:03 remaining.
The Royals prevailed despite distractions, including increased media attention, rain delays and the school celebrating senior night.
“I felt it was kind of a win-ugly situation,” Allen said. “There were a lot of distractions. Right before the thunder delay we were in a pretty good groove. To the boys’ credit, they stayed faithful.”
Marc Dennis, a junior, led the Royals with six receptions for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Daigbe, also a junior, had six catches for 118 yards and two TDs.
Malietufa finished with 41 yards on the ground for the Royals.
For Allen, the challenge is to keep his team hungry.
“What I talked to them about is that all of our goals are still in season,” he said. “Our goal was not to clinch a playoff spot, our goal is to play in Tacoma in December.”
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| Conf. | Overall | |||
| W | L | W | L | |
| Kent Meridian | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Kentwood | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Kentlake | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Tahoma | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Kentridge | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
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