Neither an unusual 4:30 p.m. kickoff, a broken down bus nor the Foss Falcons could spoil the Auburn Mountainview football program’s opening game Friday at Mount Tahoma Stadium.
The Lions won the nonleague game 28-6, overpowering the Falcons on both sides of the ball.
“We came out here to get a win and we got a win,” coach Jared Gervais said. “We were pretty sloppy at times but at the end of the night we got a win, and a win is a win and we’re going to be happy with that.
“The defense did what we thought they’d do. They had a couple mistakes here and there. They didn’t get off the field in the second quarter and that hurt our momentum offensively a bit, more than I would have liked it to,” Gervais said. “But it’s a good learning experience. It’s nice that we learned a bit about how to play harder and still walked away with a win.”
The Lions opened up scoring with junior quarterback Gresch Jensen hooking up with 6-foot-2 junior wide receiver Gavin Robertson for a 10-yard touchdown.
Jensen found another of his weapons at wide-out for the Lions’ second touchdown in the first quarter, with junior K’jan Weisinger fighting his way in for a 5-yard TD reception.
Defensively, the Lions struggled in the second quarter, allowing the Falcons to retain possession of the ball during much of the frame. Although it bent, the Auburn Mountainview defense didn’t break, however, denying the Falcons a score and sending the game into halftime 14-0.
In the third quarter, the Lions responded with Jensen capping an 80-yard drive with a TD run from a yard out.
Foss’ lone score came in the third quarter with senior quarterback Christopher Reynolds scoring on a 41-yard run. The point-after attempt was blocked by the Lions.
Auburn Mountainview closed out the game with sophomore running back Bitner Wilson’s 4-yard TD run.
“The offense was fine,” Gervais said. “It’s one of those things where it’s not as good as it looks but it’s not as bad as it looks. We’ve got to get a little better in our run game, a little more physical up front and little more consistent in our passing game. So we’ve got a lot of stuff to work on this week.”
Gervais also pointed out the odd starting time, scheduled early to accommodate the Stadium vs. Mount Tahoma game that followed.
“We kind of got a little weird-ed out by the 4:30 start time and one of our buses broke down. Goofy stuff like that happens, but you’ve got to be resilient,” Gervais said.
Jensen finished the game with 9-of-19 passing for 103 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw one interception and ran for 91 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
Wilson had nine carries for 128 yards and a touchdown.
Weisinger led the team with three catches for 30 yards, with Robertson adding three catches for 29 yards. Ryan Lacey, Wilson and Vaughn Daggs each had a reception.
Defensively, senior linebacker Aeron Watson led the team with 10 solo tackles, two for loss. Jensen, at defensive back, had seven tackles, and Robertson and senior Jason Sele added five each. Junior Elijah Johnson added a sack.
“It feels pretty good to get the win, but we have a lot of things we need to improve on,” Watson said. “We need to work on wrapping up better. They were flying all around the field and we weren’t wrapping them up. We actually had really good reads all day. We got to the ball. We just didn’t wrap them up. Offensively, we ran really well and defensively we had 11 guys on the ball every time.”
Jensen added:
“It felt really good getting out there and getting the win,” he said. “We executed pretty well, but there are still some things to work on. I’m excited to go into next week. This game was fun.”
“We messed up a few line calls a little bit, but I still think we ran the ball well,” Jensen said. “I think we could sharpen up the passing game a little bit, but overall I think we did well for a first game.”
Auburn Mountainview (1-0) travels to Steilacoom (0-1) for a 7 p.m. nonleague game this Friday.
