By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.– In one play, the Kennedy Football team were back in business against Taft Friday night in their home and season opener at Kennedy High School.
The Trojans just got a redzone stop to get the ball back with 1:36 left in the game, down 33-27 to the Tigers. Taft was attempting to ice the victory and had a touchdown that would’ve done just that but was called back due to hurdling. A play or two later, Kennedy got the stop they desperately needed to try to even out the game or to take the lead.
First play of their drive, Brody Panuke connected with Stephen Handran for 75 yards to pull the Trojans even with Taft at 33. Kennedy was a missed PAT away from retaking the lead, the first since they led 27-26 during the third quarter.
“It was huge. It got the momentum flowing towards us getting another stop,” said Panuke. “It was a good tough first game, and now we stand and where they stand, it’s good. We can improve on the little things. Just a lot of little mistakes, if we can clean them up then we’ll be fine.”
The Tigers echoed the same thing. The little things decided this game and their little things they needed to work on as well.
But with 1:26 left in the game, Taft had one more crack at ending this in regulation with the threat of overtime looming. Kol Tolan anchored the Tigers on the drive, picking up some massive yards to get the chains moving and them down the field. Taft was executing the two-minute offense to perfection. as they enter the redzone with no timeouts and hurrying to the line with time running low.
With time expiring, the Tigers got the ball off, Tolan drops back, then moves up. Firing a pass to the endzone. The awareness of Zack Hankins on the receiving end was Jerry Rice-like as he stayed with the ball, through an arm crashing down trying to knock it down, only for the Taft receiver to complete the reception at the buzzer to hand the Tigers the 39-33 victory.
“You just got to have laser focus. There’s not a lot of time for nerves. You just got to go, go, go, and trust your guys. Make sure everyone’s set and everyone has to do their job, I know I messed up a couple of times with costly turnovers, some flags in the endzone, but everyone just got to work together and that’s what practice is about. Monday through Thursday is just as important as Friday,” said Tolan.
Taft will look to clean up the little things, turn back to their philosophy of locking in Monday through Thursday, which will lead to success on Friday as the Tigers will host Sisters to close out non-league play. The Trojans head to play at Scio on September 12 for their final non-league game of the season before starting league play on September 19.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
