With the regular season in the rearview mirror for the South Puget Sound League North 4A champion Auburn Trojans, a new set of foes and a new batch of obstacles await the football team as it prepares to make a run at the state championship.
“I think we’re ready,” said Trojans coach Gordon Elliott. “We’ve gotten better every week. We’re at a point where we can compete with anyone in the state. We just have to execute what we do.
“At this point, everyone is 0-0. There are 32 teams that are starting a new season. The team that plays the best football that day wins.”
Auburn begins its postseason at 7:30 tonight against the Kamiak Knights (4-5) at Auburn Memorial Stadium, where the Trojans have won their last 39 consecutive games.
The Trojans closed out their regular season last week with a 52-14 win over cross-town rival Auburn Riverside.
Senior running back Chris Young was golden in the final regular-season game of his prep career last Friday, scoring five touchdowns and romping his way to 283 yards on 13 carries.
In all, Auburn rushed for 518 yards in the game.
The Trojans (8-0 SPSL North 4A, 7-0 overall) stunned the Ravens (2-6, 2-7) by vaulting to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter.
Kicker Aaron McMahon got the scoring started with a 38-yard field goal on the Trojans’ first drive of the game. Young added touchdowns on the next two drives, scoring from 29 yards and 1 yard out. Senior quarterback Marshall Klontz capped a four-play, 75-yard drive with a 1-yard rushing TD to close out the quarter.
In the second quarter, Young scored on 40- and 54-yard runs.
Young added rushing TDs in the third and four quarters, running in from 61 and 50 yards out. Auburn Riverside closed out the game with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, a 59-yard run by Jaray Bates and a 9-yard run by Connor Bjornstad.
For the Auburn ground attack, Austin Embody rushed for 110 yards on eight carries, and Alphonse Wade ran the ball four times for 96 yards. Klontz added 45 yards on two carries.
For the Ravens, Bjornstad ran the ball 22 times for 117 yards and Bates carried the ball 10 times for 113 yards. Junior quarterback John Hakala carried the ball 13 times for 44 yards. Hakala finished the game with 2-of-13 passing with two interceptions, both snagged by Auburn’s Justin Russo.
Defensively, the Trojans’ Dylan Rutledge led the way with a sack and 3.5 tackles for a loss.
Now, it’s time for the playoffs.
Last season the Trojans swept through their first two rounds of postseason play before running into eventual 4A champion Skyline, which ended Auburn’s season with a 42-2 loss.
“Sometimes we’ll reference it, but we don’t dwell on that too much” Elliott said of the setback. “When you get in the playoffs, you can just run into a team that is that much better than you.
“We were pretty young last year, with lots of sophomores starting,” he continued. “We’re still young. We only start three seniors on offense and four on defense. But we’re junior young this year, instead of sophomore young.”
Another issue facing the Trojans as they begin their run to the Tacoma Dome, is the suspension of three players, including Young, a star in the backfield and secondary.
“We work really hard through the season to develop our depth,” Elliott said. “All through the year we’ve worked on getting kids in, so if someone gets hurt we feel like we can put someone in. We have a few holes, but we feel like we have the depth to handle that.”
