Gridiron king
By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
Sunday, August 31, 2008 12:36 AM PDT
New Plymouth—Week one of the high school football season was filled with surprises, but none bigger than what took place in New Plymouth Friday night.
Entering the contest against Filer, the New Plymouth Pilgrims were pegged by many of the media outlets to lose, and to lose big. The only problem was, nobody told the Pilgrims, and they shook up the football world with a thrilling 27-26 win over the Filer Wildcats.
“I told the kids after the game that the coaches learned something new about the team,” Pilgrims co-head coach Bicker Therien said. “I said, ‘We found out how many football players we have on this team.’”
Junior wide receiver and cornerback Kyle King stepped up as the king of the gridiron for New Plymouth. King pulled down three interceptions — one in the end zone preventing Filer from tying the game early in the fourth quarter. King scored two touchdowns, one on a 34-yard run in the first quarter and the other on a 23-yard pass completion from sophomore Brady Harris late in the second quarter. For the icing on the cake, he returned a punt 67 yards to the Filer five-yard line.
“That was not my best game,” King said. “I still made some mistakes tonight.”
The contest was highlighted by the play of several other Pilgrim athletes as well.
Silas Gaskins and Armando Garcia both logged 2.5 sacks, Kent Brown notched two sacks and Brady Harris threw for 376 yards, as he sat in the pocket with all the time in the world.
“I have a lot of confidence in my line. They are good, and they have size,” Harris said. “I have learned a lot since last year. Coach Lacey has worked with me over the summer.”
New Plymouth jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter with a pair of scores via the ground game. The first by way of a 13-yard run by Justin Peterson, and the second on a 34-yard run by King.
Leading 12-0 to begin the second quarter, New Plymouth hit its first road block on a fourth-and-14 situation from their own 26-yard line. The Pilgrims lined up to punt, and the Filer Wildcats brought the house, blocked the kick and recovered the ball which resulted in a score.
“Our punting game killed us,” co-head coach Darrell Brown said. “We would have put them away at the half if we did not have those miscues in our punting game.”
New Plymouth added a safety late in the second quarter when a host of Pilgrim defenders sacked Filers quarterback Nathan Hughes in the endzone, making the score 14-7.
On New Plymouth’s ensuing possession Harris connected with King on a 23-yard pass for another score, the point after failed, but New Plymouth headed into the intermission leading 20-7.
In the first half, the Grims defense dominated. Hughes — an all-state athlete — could never find a rhythm and on every snap was running for his life.
“Our defense is much improved from last year,” Brown said. “And our secondary is solid.”
The Pilgrims came out of the break with the pigskin, and on its first play from scrimmage, Harris dropped back into the pocket, and as poised as Peyton Manning, lofted a beautiful pass down the sideline to senior Seth Bodas who hauled in the offering and galloped 63-unabated yards for the score, increasing the Pilgrims lead to 27-7 following the successful PAT.
Filer got a break following a New Plymouth fumble, and on seven plays drove the football 22-yards to paydirt to cut the Pilgrims lead to 27-14 with 8:32 left in the third quarter.
Late in the third frame, King fielded a punt at New Plymouth’s 28-yard line, and behind a few key blocks, and some very agile running, found open field. He scampered his way to the five yard line before being caught from behind.
On the second play from scrimmage following King’s return, the Pilgrims attempted a pitch sweep left.
However, Filer’s Jacob Bogner read the play from the start, shot into the backfield, intercepted the pitch and sprinted 96-yards in the other direction for the score. More importantly, Bogner put his team back into the game as Filer trailed 27-20.
At the 8:42 mark of the fourth, Filer was back into the end zone on a 14-yard pass completion to bring the score to 27-26, and the point after attempt looming for the tie. But again, the Pilgrim defense stepped up and broke through the thin Wildcat line to block the kick and preserved the win.
The Pilgrims have a bye week coming up, then will travel to Glenns Ferry on Sept, 12.
———
New Plymouth 27, Filer 26
Filer 0 7 13 6 — 26
New Plymouth 12 8 7 0 — 27
Scoring Summary
First quarter
New Plymouth — Peterson 13-yard run (run failed)
New Plymouth — King 34-yard run (run failed)
Second quarter
Filer — Bogner fumble revcovery 3-yard run (Reynolds kick)
New Plymouth — Safety
New Plymouth — Harris 23-yard pass King (kick failed)
Third quarter
New Plymouth — Harris 63-yard pass Bodas (Tamez kick)
Filer — Hughes 4-yard run (Reynolds kick)
Filer — Bogner 96-yard run Kick blocked)
Fourth quarter
Filer — Hughes 14-yard pass Orr (kick blocked)
