Kentridge High quarterback Caleb Smith has started just two games at the varsity level in his life.<\/p>\n
Yet, the sophomore already is looking like a veteran. As much was evident Friday night at French Field, when Smith guided the Chargers to a convincing 41-7 South Puget Sound League North Division win over Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n
Smith connected on 5 of 9 passes for 170 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown pass to all-league wide receiver Jason Didis in the opening quarter that gave the Chargers an immediate offensive spark.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seems to be pretty poised,\u201d said Kentridge coach Marty Osborn. \u201cWe\u2019ve been really impressed with his composure and he does a really nice job executing the offense. That (touchdown pass) really got us going because (Jefferson) came out tough with some NFL-sized lineman. Then Caleb laced one into Didis, who took it to the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentridge (2-0) bolted out to a 34-0 third-quarter lead on Smith\u2019s touchdown pass, a 16-yard run by Cameron McKernan, a 3-yard score by Alex Tyson and a pair of rushing touchdowns by senior Devin Topps. The Chargers added one more score in the fourth quarter, a 37-yard run from Alec McKenzie after TJ\u2019s lone touchdown of the game, to put the Raiders (0-2) away.<\/p>\n
But Friday night was hardly the all-Smith show. For the second consecutive week, the Kentridge defense played nearly flawless, forcing four turnovers \u2013 three fumbles and an interception. Senior defensive back Brandon Reiter, who was the team\u2019s quarterback last season, came away with two of those fumble recoveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far so good,\u201d Osborn said of his team\u2019s quick start. \u201cThe kids have come out and played well pretty much all three phases \u2013 offense, defense and special teams \u2013 have come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed. Because in two games combined, Kentridge has outscored its opponents 75-14. In addition, Kentridge\u2019s first-string defense hasn\u2019t allowed a touchdown yet.<\/p>\n
\u201c(On defense) we\u2019ve given up a couple long passes that we\u2019d like to shore up, but the kids have done a good job of putting heat on the quarterback,\u201d Osborn noted.<\/p>\n
The Chargers will receive its biggest test of the early season on Friday, when it travels to Federal Way (0-1 in league, 1-1 overall). The Eagles were considered a contender for the SPSL North crown before the season began. They opened with a 42-7 loss to fourth-ranked Auburn before knocking off Emerald Ridge last week, 29-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kentridge High quarterback Caleb Smith has started just two games at the varsity level in his life. Yet, the sophomore already is looking like a veteran. As much was evident Friday night at French Field, when Smith guided the Chargers to a convincing 41-7 South Puget Sound League North Division win over Thomas Jefferson. Smith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13110"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}