By Karrington Kincaid, The Seattle Medium
The frigid temperatures early Saturday morning did not stop the highly anticipated playoff matchup between the 6U Benson Bruins and 6U Heir. Both coaches were incredibly pumped to get onto the field to show what their teams were made of.
“It’s the semi-finals and we’ve made it this far, but the job is not done yet,” said Benson Bruins 6U Head Coach Donovan Agasid. “We’ve got to finish this game, we’ve got to execute, and we’ve got to complete our job.”
“I’m feeling really confident about my boys today,” said Coach JU of the 6U Heir team. “We worked hard all week in practice and we’ve been talking about it all week. These boys are ready, I’m ready, let’s do it.”
This game was the first matchup of the five games that took place last Saturday at Renton Memorial Stadium as these teams fight for their lives in the playoffs.
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Heir came out on fire, as they pounded Benson’s defense behind their running attack led by King Holiwell. Holiwell finished off the initial drive of the game with a 30-yard touchdown run, putting Heir up 6-0. The Bruins responded with a drive of their own led by the running back duo of Knowledge Morgan and Ly’Mical Roberts. Roberts would finish the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 6-6.
As the first quarter wound down, tons of defensive plays were made by Heir to make things very tough for the Bruins offense. Holiwell and his HEIR teammate Payton Edmond made some crucial red zone tackles to force Benson to turnover the ball on downs at the beginning of the second quarter. The Bruins would counter as Zaire Ticeson recovered a fumble off a quarterback-running back exchange. These plays were all part of a chess match by both defenses until the final plays of the second quarter, as the Bruins would take the lead on a one-yard touchdown run by Knowledge Morgan to take a 12-6 lead at the end the first half.
The Bruins came out of the locker room to start the second half with confidence as they looked to double up on their score. Morgan completely dominated the third quarter with his physical running style. A drive that took up the majority of the third quarter, included a 30-yard run by Morgan, really set the tone for the offense as Morgan ran for a 5-yard touchdown to finish the drive.
In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Heir would not back down from any challenge. Avery Curran made some nice improvisations which included a 15-yard run on their first offensive drive of the quarter. This complemented Holiwell’s elusive running style which opened opportunities for HEIR’s running game.
On defense, HEIR’s Jaxson Plum was a disruptor as he made several tackles to force a turnover on downs on two separate drives. Sosiah Toutai recorded a sack to flip the field position in favor of HEIR. But Heir’s comeback would be too little too late, as they scored on a 30-yard touchdown run by Holiwell along with a 2-point conversion by Plum with 15 seconds left in the game.
The Bruins would advance to the championship game with an 18-14 win over HEIR. Bruins 6U Coach Agasid was very pleased with his team’s overall play in the game and was just so excited for what’s to come next week.
“Words can’t describe how I’m feeling,” said Agasid. “This is my job to teach these kids the fundamentals and the love for the game of football. The boys played their butts off, and I cannot be any prouder of them for competing the way they did.”
