10/08/22

Kennedy Catholic 56, Kentridge 14

(Burien, WA) It was homecoming for the Kennedy Catholic Lancers on Saturday afternoon at Highline Memorial Stadium and Kennedy used a fast start and dominant defense to win their 21st consecutive NPSL game in a 56-14 win over Kentridge.

The 56 points scored was a season high for the Lancers, and just 28 seconds into the game,  senior running back and Arizona State commit Xe’ree Alexander caught a wheel route out of the backfield and raced 49 yards to give Kennedy a 6-0 lead and the 2-point conversion failed.

Kentridge then punted on their first drive and Isaac Syph returned the punt 69 yards for a TD, but a holding penalty brought the explosive play back.

That did not phase Kennedy Catholic as Syph got open for a 41-yard TD pass from Devon Forehand, the 2-point conversion was successful to extend the lead to 14-0 midway through the 1st quarter.

Kennedy focused their defense on stifling the Chargers running game, getting tackles for loss series after series and getting the ball back to their offense.  Another TD pass, this time to Mason Hayes increased the lead to 22-0 after 1 quarter.

The 2nd quarter was much of the same, but Kentridge showed some life forcing two Kennedy Catholic interceptions. The problem for the Chargers is that they could not take advantage as the Lancers added 2 more touchdown passes, both from two yards out to Maclane Watkins and Indiana Jones (yes that’s his real name) to make it a 36-0 halftime lead for Kennedy Catholic.

Kentridge was held to negative yardage in the 1st half and Kennedy added another passing touchdown in the 3rd quarter, this time to Mason Moriarty and it was 43-0 Lancers midway through the 3rd.

30 seconds later though the Chargers finally broke through an explosive play of their own, an 80-yard TD run from Jalon Blackwell to make it 43-7.

The Lancers high octane offense kept on firing however with a drive capped off by a Forehand TD pass to Watkins from 13-yards out and the rout increased to 49-7.

To Kentridge’s credit, they didn’t stop playing hard, and a 75-yard TD pass to Oregon State commit Dorian Thomas cut the lead to 49-14, but Isaac Syph took back the kickoff 99 yards for the score to make it 56-14 the final.

Kennedy Catholic improves to 5-1 and 4-0 in the NPSL, and still haven’t lost a league game since 2018. The win pushes up the Lancers to 3rd in the WIAA 4A RPI rankings. Next up is a short week on Thursday against an Auburn Riverside team that started 0-2 and has won 4 in row since. Kentridge falls to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the NPSL and hosts Tahoma next Saturday.

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