The Auburn Trojans will look to extend their football season and 48-home-game winning streak tonight with a state 4A quarterfinal matchup against undefeated and second-ranked Curtis.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Auburn Memorial Stadium.
No. 14 Auburn (9-2), which lost to Curtis 41-14 earlier this season, earned another shot at knocking off the Vikings (11-0) with a 28-21 road victory against No. 10 Skyview (8-3) last Friday.
“We’ve got some redemption angles to play,” said Trojans coach Gordon Elliott, referring to the team’s road loss to the Vikings on Oct. 8. “I think that’s huge for us to play at home. We get one more game at home for the seniors.”
The Trojans will look to stymie the Vikings’ high-powered offense and control the ball with their potent running game, a strategy they successfully followed against Skyview last week.
“We played well,” Elliott said. “They’re a good football team, but we were able to keep the ball away from them. We moved the clock and moved the chains, and that’s what you have to do in big games.”
Against Skyview, the Trojans dominated the game with their time-consuming running game, keyed by senior quarterback Max Pratt, who had 27 carries for 117 yards and one touchdown.
Alphonse Wade – who left the game in the first half with a leg injury and is questionable for the Curtis game, although he did practice with the team this week – had five carries for 48 yards and a touchdown, and Austin Embody added 13 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown.
Dylan Rutledge added a defensive touchdown on a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown.
All told, Auburn put up 301 yards rushing and controlled the ball for more than 30 minutes in the game, including the final six minutes.
Defensively the Trojans held Storm running back Parker Henry to just 13 carries for 43 yards. Ellis Henderson added three carries for 65 yards.
Skyview quarterback Kieran McDonagh finished with 10-of-14 passing for 126 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Although Elliott was pleased with the team’s performance against the Storm, he said the team needs to step it up to beat Curtis.
“There is always stuff to work on,” Elliott said. “We have to play a better game (against Curtis). We didn’t play well last time. We gave up some big plays and let them get ahead early, and that’s not good for our style of play.”
Elliott added that having faced the Vikings already is an advantage for the Trojans.
“It’s always nice to kind of know what they’re like,” Elliott said. “It’s actually probably more of an advantage for us than them.”
The winner of tonight’s game will advance to the state semifinals and a 7 p.m. Nov. 27 game at the Tacoma Dome against either No. 1 Skyline (10-1) or No. 8 Issaquah (9-2).
