By Karrington Kincaid, The Seattle Medium
High expectations and excitement surrounded both the 11U Benson Bruins and the 12U Gridiron as they prepared to face off in their 12U playoff matchup. The showdown featured star players such as the Bruins’ dynamic halfback duo of De’Shaun Brown and Lawrence Philips, and Gridiron’s standout quarterback, Jadis Lefono.
Coming into the game, Benson Bruins 11U Head Coach Chris Vala knew the threat that Lefono could be in this upcoming matchup.
“Their quarterback Jadis is no joke,” said Vala before the game. “I have a ton of respect for the way he plays the position, that’s one of the main reasons why we need to be physical to throw their momentum off as much as possible.”
DeQuin Evans, CEO of Gridiron, had nothing but great things to say about both squads prior to kickoff.
“[I have] so much respect for them,” said Evans. “Coach Vala does a great job keeping those boys disciplined. I think this is going to be a dog fight from the get-go, and I’m very excited to see this game play out.”
The Bruins started off with the ball first as they looked to establish their running game. Both Brown and Phillips ran the ball effectively, but it wasn’t enough to keep the drive moving as they had to punt the ball away. Gridiron looked very efficient on their first drive as well, but it was short-lived as De’shaun Brown came up with an interception just a few plays into the drive.
After the turnover, Gridiron proceeded to completely take over the game, as they rallied offensively behind the play of Lefono and a tremendous effort by their defense. During the second quarter, Lefono would connect with receiver Trent Davis on a 72-yard touchdown pass to give Gridiron a 6-0 lead. Davis would follow up his touchdown by picking off Bruins’ quarterback Heathcliff Love on the following drive.
Frustrations would show up on the Bruins’ sideline, which resulted in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that set up a 21-yard pass from Lefono to Davis, which led to Davis’ second receiving touchdown of the game from Lefono on a 2-yard fade pass in the endzone.
Coming out of halftime, the Gridiron continued their onslaught by scoring on a 98-yard touchdown run by Lefono, putting them up 22-0. After back-and-forth defensive stops by both teams, Gridiron would respond with another long touchdown drive beginning with Lefono’s 67-yard connection with receiver Wallace Nekenieh, which set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Sharon Tuafalele to make the game 30-0 in favor of Gridiron.
With the fourth quarter winding down, the Bruin’s Aadien Brown scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Love to cut Gridiron’s lead to 30-6. Lefono would respond by scoring a touchdown of his own on a 63-yard run to seal the game, 38-6.
Although his team got the impressive win over Benson, Gridiron 12U Head Coach Chris Nofo wasn’t pleased with the number of penalties and mistakes that happened throughout the game.
“After playing this team a couple of times, the third time is a charm,” said Nofo. “We’ve had a lot of penalties today overall and it definitely didn’t help. We have to clean things up in order for us to have a good chance against our opponent next week.”
