By Katherine Smith and Kris Hill
Week six saw some firsts in the South Puget Sound League 4A North 2013 season.
Kentlake won its first game with a 26-20 win over Mount Rainier at Highline Stadium while Kentwood lost for the first time in a non-league contest to Rogers Oct. 11 at French Field.
Tahoma, meanwhile, rolled to another victory setting up this week’s matchup with Kentwood Thursday night.
The Tahoma defense shut down Kentridge in a 41-7 win in which the Bears limiting the Chargers to just one touchdown in the first quarter at Maxwell Stadium.
Kentridge struggled to move the ball downfield and went three and out on the first drive of the night. Tahoma took over on its own 30 yard line and quarterback Shane Nelson connected with DeShon Williams, who ran the ball in for the Bears first touchdown of the night. The extra point put Tahoma up 7-0.
On the next series Kentridge got its only break of the contest with a successful drive which ended in a touchdown and the extra point to tie things up at 7-7.
The Chargers recovered a Bears fumble later in the first quarter on the Chargers’ five yard line but ended up punting and the Bears took over on the Chargers 35. A touchdown by Jerome Woods and the extra point put Tahoma up 21-7 at the end of the first quarter.
On their first drive of the second quarter the Bears went for it on fourth and 10 but the pass was intercepted by the Chargers’ Braiden Beckman. The Chargers pushed down to the Bears’ 17 yard line but a penalty cost them, backing the ball up to about the 27 and a field goal attempt went wide left.
A touchdown by Denham Patricelli put the Bears up 28-7 at halftime.
Tahoma started the second half fast, moving downfield with a series of catches and a touchdown by Williams in under a minute to put Tahoma up 35-7.
On their next possession the Bears Williams and Patricelli earned back-to-back first downs and Patricelli ran it in for the touchdown. The Tahoma kicker got a second chance at the extra point after a flag for roughing the kicker but the second attempt was blocked, making the score 41-7.
Patricelli came up big again on the next drive when he intercepted a high pass from the Kentridge quarterback and returned the ball 45 yards.
Nelson went 16 of 23 on the night for 315 yards passing and five touchdowns.
Woods had eight runs for 71 yards and a touchdown and Joe Donahue had eight runs for 57 yards. Additionally for the Bears Williams had nine catches for 198 yards and three touchdowns, Patricelli had four catches for 85 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, Alex Jeric had four catches for 58 yards, Elijah Suka had 10.5 tackles and Blake Donohue had nine tackles.
This week Tahoma played Kentwood at French Field Thursday night, after the Reporter’s press deadline.
Week six in the SPSL North:
Rogers 34, Kentwood 33
Kentwood gave up 162 yards on special teams and turned the ball over four times inside its own 30 in the loss to Rogers.
At the end of the first quarter of the back and forth affair, Kentwood and Rogers were tied at 7-7, but then the Rams scored 14 in the second quarter to the Conquerors nine in the second. One of the special teams frustrations for Kentwood was a 96 yard punt return for a touchdown by Rogers.
After Isaiah Williams put Kentwood on top late in the fourth quarter with a 12-yard scoring run, Rogers answered with 43 seconds left in the fourth quarter to take the lead and the victory. Kyler Ooley hauled in a 21 yard pass from Grayson Madland to take the slim lead.
Brandon Sytsma led the Conks running game with 105 yards on 26 carries with one touchdown Tim Angevine contributed touchdowns for Kentwood — Williams had a 26-yard pick six followed by a two-point conversion by Sytsma in addition to his rushing score.
Meanwhile quarterback Brian Campbell went 10-for-18 with 149 with a pair of interceptions. Terrence Grady pulled in five catches for 62 yards. Brandyn Bangsund kicked a pair of field goals for Kentwood.
Kentlake 26, Mount Rainier 20
Kentlake scored first on a 44-yard touchdown run by junior quarterback Tino Wells but had to hold off Mount Rainier in its first victory of the 2013 campaign.
Mount Rainier answered with a touchdown of its own in the ensuing drive. Both teams missed the point after kick and it was 6-6 with 7 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Falcons defense held the Rams on the next series then put together a 76-yard scoring drive capped by a short rushing touchdown by senior running back Taylor Rodney to put Kentlake up 12-6 early in the second quarter.
With 6:30 left on the clock in the third, Daunston Kaunda stretched the lead for Kentlake with a touchdown, pushing it to 18-6.
The Rams cut the lead to 18-13 early in the fourth quarter but the Falcons answered with a 29-yard touchdown run by Tyler Harris. D’Marye Dedrick, who was in at quarterback after Wells suffered an injury playing on defense in the first half, punched in the two point conversion to give Kentlake the 26-13 lead with 3:34 left in the game.
Kentridge will play Kentlake at 7 p.m. Friday at French Field.
