By ERICK WALKER<\/p>\n
ewalker@kentreporter.com<\/p>\n
They had a number in mind.<\/p>\n
And Friday night at French Field, the Kentwood High football team hit that number on the button. Needing to win by at least six points, the Conquerors did just that, knocking off rival Kentridge 13-7 in a pivotal South Puget Sound League North Division game.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we won by six, it puts us in position to take second,\u201d said Kentwood\u2019s Nathan Herrick, who recovered a key third-quarter fumble that led to what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.<\/p>\n
With the win, Kentwood (5-2 in league, 6-2 overall) forged a three-way tie for second place in the North with Kentridge (5-2, 5-3) and Federal Way (5-2, 6-2). If the three teams tie after next week\u2019s final round of games, the Conquerors would take the No. 2 seed to the playoffs based on the league\u2019s power-point system. Kentridge would nab the No. 3 seed based on its win over Federal Way.<\/p>\n
Kentridge could have wrapped up the division\u2019s No. 2 playoff seed with a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we still have to win (next week against Kent-Meridian to get in),\u201d said Kentridge coach Marty Osborn.<\/p>\n
Friday night, the Chargers were in decent position to do exactly that in a game that was billed as a defensive showdown and, essentially, lived up to the hype. Kentridge delivered one of its finest drives of the season to open the second quarter, going 85 yards on 10 plays, chewing up nearly six minutes of the game clock and ending on a 5-yard touchdown run by Alex Tyson. The score gave the Chargers a 7-0 lead and the momentum.<\/p>\n
Kentwood responded in the final seconds of the half, when kicker Matt Bell drilled a 28-yard field goal, cutting the deficit to 7-3.<\/p>\n
Still trailing midway through the third quarter and facing the league\u2019s stingiest defense, the Conquerors received the momentum swing they were looking for when Herrick recovered a Kentridge fumble on a punt at the Charger 16-yard line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed something big to help us turn the momentum around and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time,\u201d Herrick said.<\/p>\n
Herrick\u2019s big recovery certainly turned the game around. Three plays later, Kentwood quarterback Tristan Askew went around the left side, juked inside, then to the outside past a pair of Kentridge defenders and into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown and a 10-7 lead.<\/p>\n
But the Conquerors still needed at least three more points to reach their magic number. Defensive back Mike Roy helped make it happen early in the fourth quarter, intercepting a tipped pass by Kentridge quarterback Caleb Smith.<\/p>\n
Kentwood was unable to move the ball far against the staunch Kentridge defense, but did move close enough for Bell, who rang home a season-high 40-yard field goal, giving the Conquerors a 13-7 advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came out and made clutch field goals when it really counted,\u201d Kentwood coach Rex Norris said of Bell.<\/p>\n
Kentridge pushed the ball to Kentwood\u2019s 37-yard line with five seconds left in the game, when Smith\u2019s final attempt of the night fell incomplete.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, obviously, because some of our mistakes led to our loss, but we just got to keep doing what we\u2019re doing and play good defense,\u201d said Kentridge\u2019s Jason Didis.<\/p>\n
As good as the Kentridge defense has been all season, the Conquerors were just as tough Friday night. Kentwood held the Chargers to 149 yards of total offense and just 41 in the second half. In addition, Kentwood\u2019s Josh Smith, known more for what he\u2019s done on the basketball court, was shifted to the defensive line and made his presence felt, collecting a pair of sacks and two tackles for a loss.<\/p>\n
Kentridge, however, certainly held its own on defense, holding Kentwood to 211 yards of total offense, all of which came on the ground. In addition, Kentwood\u2019s 13 points was a season low.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought out their weapons, we didn\u2019t,\u201d said Kentridge linebacker Dylan Zylstra. \u201cWe just gave them the ball in great position \u2026 and I\u2019m going to give them credit, they shut me down all night. It was by-far my worst game of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to forget it and move on. The most important game is always the next one. But (when) you lose to Kentwood, you\u2019re never going to forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n
ALSO: Kentwood running back\/defensive back Mikell Everette was taken off the field on a stretcher as a precautionary measure with 22.5 seconds remaining in the game after being knocked unconscious. \u201cHe\u2019s feeling pretty loopy,\u201d said Norris. \u201cHe took the weight of three people coming at him (on a tackle). He was unconscious for a couple seconds.\u201d Everette led the Conquerors in rushing, going for 76 yards on 13 carries.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kentwood 13, Kentridge 7<\/p>\n
Kentridge \t0\t7\t0\t0\t—\t7<\/p>\n
Kentwood\t0\t3\t7\t3\t—\t13<\/p>\n
Kentridge: Alex Tyson 5 run (Wes Cencepcion kick).<\/p>\n
KW: Matt Bell 28 FG<\/p>\n
KW: Tristan Askew 21 run (Bell kick).<\/p>\n
KW: Bell 40 FG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By ERICK WALKER ewalker@kentreporter.com They had a number in mind. And Friday night at French Field, the Kentwood High football team hit that number on the button. Needing to win by at least six points, the Conquerors did just that, knocking off rival Kentridge 13-7 in a pivotal South Puget Sound League North Division game. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":3638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3637"}],"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=3637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3637"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}