Kennett starts out early and blanks West Chester Henderson

WEST CHESTER >> Friday night at J. Oscar Dicks Stadium, the visiting Kennett Blue Demons put on a suffocating defensive performance and got four touchdowns from hard-running Julian Sparacino — who rushed for 200 yards on 23 carries — as the Blue Demons downed the host West Chester Henderson Warriors, 37-0, in a Ches-Mont American Division game.

Kennett (2-0 Ches-Mont, 2-1 overall) jumped out to an early 14-0 lead when Sparacino scored on runs of 3- and 37-yards in the first period to put the Blue Demons in control. The Warriors (0-2, 0-2) did not pick up their initial first down until the last minute of the first half. Sparacino, and the Kennett offensive line, set the tone early.

“We just wanted to come out and establish ourselves and we did that tonight,” Sparacino said. “I want to play football in college and I am looking for an offer and I like to run the ball hard. And on defense we talk all the time about playing hard and taking the other teams will away, and I think we did that tonight.”

With the Demons holding a 14-0 lead after just one period it was up to West Chester Henderson to answer.

But the Kennett defense was all over the field and the Warriors totaled just 91 total yards in the game, and had only 28 yards of total offense in the first half.

The Blue Demons piled on two more points in the second period when the Warriors were victimized by a bad punt snap that resulted in a safety and a 16-0 Kennett advantage at halftime.

“I think we made strides from last week,” West Chester Henderson head coach Bob Brice said. “But we just have to get better on fundamentals. This is a game of inches and we are not getting those inches now. We have a lot of first time Friday night guys but we have to clean things up.”

Brice may have been talking about the 11 penalties the Warriors endured, with a few of them negating positive yardage plays from the offense.

The Warriors garnered only four first downs for the game and would have had seven or eight if not for the mental miscues.

Kennett came out on fire in the third period as the Demons defense forced a three and out from the Warriors and went on a 55-yard scoring drive, with Sparacino breaking three tackles to score on a pretty 32-yard touchdown run down the left sideline. Kennett went and got the successful two-point conversion to move into complete control, 24-0.

“Julian is a guy that has aspirations of playing college football,” Kennett head coach Lance Frazier said. “And he dedicated himself over the summer to working in the weight room and getting stronger and I think you saw that tonight. This was the second 200 yard game of the young season for him.”

Kennett continued to play fantastic run defense so the Warriors went to the air, but Warriors’ quarterback Aaron Nelson threw two fourth period interceptions.

One was brought in by Xavier McGrael and the other was picked off by Aiden Zdebski.

The Blue Demons put up another 14 points in the fourth period on a 35-yard touchdown run by Sparacino and the other being a shorter jaunt from quarterback Brett Kaufmann, to put the game into the mercy rule late in the fourth period, on the way to an impressive 37-0 win.

“We were very sloppy tonight and we have to clean up things in all phases of the game,” Frazier said. “And I thought our defense played very well. We like to talk about 11 guys creating chaos on defense and we have to get better because we have the big dogs of Rustin coming to our place next week and we have to be ready for them.”

Kennett 37, WC Henderson 0

                Scoring
K — Sparacino 3 run (Barker kick)
K — Sparacino 37 run (Barker kick)
               Second Period
K — Safety
               Third Period
K — Sparacino 32 run (Carlo run)
               Fourth Period
K — Sparacino 35 run (kick failed)
K — Kauffman 4 run (Barker kick)

                    Team Totals

                       K                 WC
First downs     15                4
Yards rushing 249            30
Yards passing 20             61
Total yards      269          91
Passing          5-8-0       7-21-2
Fumbles-lost   2-2           0-0
Punts-avg.      4-46.5     7-28.5
Penalties-yds   6-40       11-70

                      Individual Statistics
Rushing: Ken: Sparacino 23-200, 4 TD’s; Guyer 10-50; Kauffman 5 (-3), TD; Good 1-2. Hend: Nelson 5 (-8); Willis 1-0; Murphy 1-3; Collins 5-5; Garcia 7-30.

Passing: Ken: Kauffman 5-8-20. Hend: Nelson 7-21-61.

Receiving: Ken: Jung 3-3; McQueen 1-14; McGrael 1-3. Hend: Collins 2-4; Kearney 1-25; Hawkins 1-4; Garcia 3-28.

Sacks: Ken: Jung. Hend: None.

Interceptions: Ken: McGrael, Zdebski. Hen: None.