Auburn survived an upset scare at the hands of Tahoma at Auburn Memorial Stadium on Thursday, coming from behind in the final seconds of the game to defeat the Bears 31-27.
“Tahoma played a great game,” Auburn coach Gordon Elliott said. “They came out and played a good game and made us work for it. We made some mistakes and when a team is playing like that you can’t make mistakes against them. We let them do some things we shouldn’t have let them do.”
From the opening kickoff Tahoma (1-3) played like a team intent on knocking the No. 1-ranked Trojans (4-0) off their perch on top of the South Puget Sound League North 4A.
The Bears opened the game by holding the Trojans to a three-and-out on their first possession of the game, then recovering a fumble on a botched punt attempt at Auburn’s 19-yard line. Tahoma drew first blood on the ensuing drive, with Niko Madison galloping in from 1-yard out.
Auburn responded in the first quarter with a 27-yard field goal from Aaron McMahon to put the score at 7-3 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter Auburn grabbed 10-7 lead on a 7-yard Alphonse Wade touchdown run.
In the second half Tahoma continued to pick away at the Trojan defense, with running back Riley Owens busting a 53-yard run to set up a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dallin Munk to Jason Smith.
Tahoma posted their largest lead of the game in the third quarter with Madison capping a 80-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown to put the score at 21-10.
As good as the Bears played, however, their defense was unable to stop running back Austin Embody on the Trojan’s next possession. Embody found a seam and broke off a 61-yard touchdown run to bring the score to
Embody added another big run in the third, scoring again on a 74-yard touchdown to put Auburn up 24-21.
With upset still on their minds, the Bears replied with a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the next play, courtesy of Jason Smith. Although the point after failed, the Bears came into the final quarter with a 27-24 lead.
In the fourth quarter Tahoma played ground control, mounting a 78-yard, 10-minute drive that brought them to Auburn’s 1-yard line. The Trojan defense responded by holding the Bears on three straight plays and regaining possession with 2:45 left on the clock.
With just 44-seconds left in the game the Trojans found themselves with 99-yards to go. After driving to the Tahoma 35, Trojan quarterback Max Pratt found Alphonse Wade for a 34-yard reception, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run by Pratt to put the Trojans up for the final time at 31-27.
“It would have been real easy to come in here and lay down, but that’s not who these kids are,” Tahoma coach Tony Davis said about his team after the game.
“Tahoma has great coach,” Embody said. “They just battled. They’re really good at wrapping up and tackling. They’re a bunch of kids that want to play football.”
Embody ended the game with 173 of Auburn’s 343 yards rushing. Wade added 80 yards.
Tahoma was led by Madison with 98 yards on 38 carries.
For Auburn head coach Gordon Elliott, the scare comes at a perfect time for his squad.
Next week the team will play 4-0 Kentwood at French Field, with another road game against No. 3 ranked Curtis coming the following Friday.
“Hopefully, it’s an eye opener for us,” Elliott said. “You have to come out play hard and do things right and we just didn’t do a lot of things right. Fortunately we did enough things right to win, but we had to really work to get back into it and win the game.”
“It’s a big wake up call,” Embody added. “I’ll admit in my mind that I walked into the stadium thinking it was going to be a cakewalk. This shows us that every team is coming in to knock us off. The Tahoma team playing TJ is one thing. But when they come and play the No. 1 team in the state everybody turns their game up and come at you.”
