Most people know it as Troy Field.
From now on, however, when the Auburn Mountainview football team takes over the turf at Auburn Memorial Stadium for home games, it has a new name.
“Welcome to the ‘Jungle,’” said coach Jared Gervais, who along with the rest of the Lion coaching staff sported camouflage pants and shorts for the team’s Friday night game against Eatonville. “We’re turning this place into the ‘Jungle’ at Auburn Memorial now. We wanted to do something to make this place feel more like ours on game nights than it does now.”
This past Friday the Lions (1-1 overall) managed to hack their way out of a first half wilderness at the “Jungle”, overcoming both the Cruisers (1-1) and their own mistakes to win their first game of the season 13-12.
“It feels pretty good,” Gervais said. “Mainly I feel good for the kids. Our problem every year is figuring out how to win when things aren’t going right. And tonight things didn’t go right.”
Although the Lions got things started quickly, with senior running back Victor Korchemniy – who finished the game with 69 yards on 18 carries – drawing first blood in the contest with a 5-yard run in the first quarter, the Lions struggled with holding penalties in the first half.
The team committed six holding infractions, including two that negated would-be touchdowns. Coupled with a missed field goal, the first half miscues would have been enough to set most teams back on their heels.
“They fought through it though,” Gervais said of his team.
Eatonville responded in the third quarter with Jarred Keefer scoring on a 62-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Zach Fairhart. The point after attempt failed leaving the score at 7-6.
Auburn Mountainview padded their lead in the third quarter with sophomore Joey Cassano juking a Cruiser defender and scoring on a 26 yard pass from junior quarterback Domenic Rockey.
Eatonville added the final score of the game in the fourth quarter with running back Shane Saunders scoring on a 42-yard touchdown run. Another failed PAT left the score at 13-12.
The Cruisers threatened in the final moments of the game, but turned over the ball on downs at the Lions’ 19 yard line, with Korchemniy and senior Derek Sarrett stuffing Saunders for a loss on fourth down and securing Auburn Mountainview’s victory.
“It’s off our chest, there is no question now,” said Rockey, who finished the game with 226 yards on 16-of-30 passing.. “We knocked a bit of the rust off and got over the little mistakes. Now we just have to keep playing football and not get too high or too low.
“Adversity doesn’t affect us any more,” he added. “We’re more mature and we have short memories. It’s all about how you play all four quarters. We can’t let anything get to us. We’re way more confident.”
Junior Devin Bryant led the Lions in receiving with five catches for 112 yards. Senior Skyler White added five catches for 56 yards.
The Lions will travel to Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma at 7 p.m. Friday for a game against Foss.
“They just have to keep believing in each other, just keep staying positive and I think things will go great the rest of the year,” Gervais said.
ALSO: The Auburn Riverside Ravens were victorious in the first-ever game at Riverside Field on Friday, defeating Kent-Meridian 37-14 in South Puget Sound League North 4A action. Jaray Bates had two touchdown runs for the Ravens (1-1 league, 1-1 overall), who piled up 320 yards on the ground in the contest. The team was led by Evert Chung with119 rushing yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Josh Latta was 11-of-23 for 196 yards with an interception. Kameron Boardway had five catches for 95 yards and two interceptions on defense. Auburn Riverside picked off the Royals (0-1, 0-2) four times in the contest, with Michael Robinson and Bates also notching picks. The Ravens will travel to Federal Way Stadium for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday against Todd Beamer (0-1, 0-1)… Auburn improved to 2-0 in the SPSL North 4A with a 48-7 victory at Mount Rainier (0-2, 0-2). The Trojans will host Jefferson (1-1, 1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.
