Kosara, Kennett stop Vanguards in their tracks
ASTON — Mitch Kosara has been waiting a long time for Kennett to have the kind of game that he knew the team was capable of playing. Kosara and his Blue Demons teammates won’t have to wait for a breakthrough any longer as Kennett put together a masterful effort and shocked Sun Valley 26-14 Friday night in a Ches-Mont League showdown.
“We’ve been talking about how much we needed a win all week,” said Kosara, who finished with five receptions for 124 yards and two touchdowns. “We didn’t have a win coming into this and all season we’ve been trying to figure things out. Our new coach came in, he’s great, and I think we finally found the recipe.”
Kosara was a complete and utter force on both sides of the ball for Kennett. In addition to his aforementioned offensive output, the senior snared two interceptions, including a tremendous, one-handed effort in the first half.
“I felt really confident coming into this,” Kosara said. “I haven’t had many wins at Kennett, but this is amazing.”
Sun Valley broke open the scoring on its first drive behind the speedy legs of Julz Kelly (126 yards rushing, 83 yards receiving). He dashed into the end zone from five yards away to give the Vanguards an early 7-0 lead. Kennett was not going to let Sun Valley steamroll them, however.
The Blue Demons scored 19 unanswered points behind the arm of Sam Forte (11-14-1, 173 yards), the legs of Garrett Cox (115 yards rushing), and the all-around excellence of Kosara. He hauled in touchdown passes of 65 and 42 yards, respectively, from Forte. Cox then slammed into the end zone for another score to give Kennett a 19-7 lead with 29 seconds left in the first half.
“We talked all week about getting our guys in a position to be successful,” Blue Demons coach Lance Frazier said., who had stints with the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, and Seattle Seahawks in the NFL. “We wanted to get our young quarterback (Forte) off to a fast start and we did that. We didn’t expect it to go this well, but as the game went on they got more and more confident. They’re in great shape because I work them hard and you saw the conditioning come in late in the game. Sun Valley is athletic as heck and it was just a wonderful game to be a part of.”
Like Kennett, however, Kelly was not going to head into halftime without a fight. As time was ticking down in the first half Sun Valley quarterback Anthony Ellis scrambled all over the pocket before throwing up a jump ball that Kelly corralled. He raced to the end zone as time expired for a 59-yard touchdown reception to cut the Blue Demons’ lead to 19-14 at halftime.
“In the first half they hit us with two, deep crossing routes that turned into monster plays for them,” said Sun Valley coach Greg “Bubba” Bernhardt, whose team dropped to 3-2. “This isn’t something we saw coming. We had a great week of practice and we were ready to go. I don’t know what happened. Next week is another monster game, though. I told them afterward that we’re learning something every game, whether we win or we lose. We learned a valuable lesson tonight, that in our league anybody can beat anybody. If you don’t play your ‘A’ game you could be in trouble. You can’t just flip a switch and start lighting up the scoreboard.”
Kennett controlled the game in the second half and secured the only touchdown in the last 24 minutes when Forte scored on a three-yard scramble to give the Blue Demons a convincing 26-14 lead that they would not relinquish.
“We’re trying to teach a bunch of guys to play the game the correct way,” said Frazier, whose team improved to 1-1 in the league and 1-4 overall. “It’s been inconsistent at the top for these kids. I think they have seen three or four different head coaches in the last five or six years. We’re in this for the education piece, the discipline piece, and also helping kids grow to be great young men. We have a family value, we have fun together, we teach, we discipline, and we have purpose.”
