Frosh gridders unleash tsunami in finale

The entire Bainbridge freshman football team unleashed an offensive and defensive tsunami Thursday afternoon against Roosevelt that didn’t subside until the final seconds had ticked off the clock at Memorial Stadium. An interception by Max Kauffman on the opening play riled up the Spartans, who steamrolled the Rough Riders on both sides of the ball in the 41-6 win. Mounting a no-holds barred offensive attack, quarterback Quinton Agosta went to Kauffman for a pair of short scrambles, followed by a just-long pass attempt to Fiore Ala’llima. Agosta, looking to throw on fourth down, ended up darting to within three yards of the first down marker.

The entire Bainbridge freshman football team unleashed an offensive and defensive tsunami Thursday afternoon against Roosevelt that didn’t subside until the final seconds had ticked off the clock at Memorial Stadium.

An interception by Max Kauffman on the opening play riled up the Spartans, who steamrolled the Rough Riders on both sides of the ball in the 41-6 win.

Mounting a no-holds barred offensive attack, quarterback Quinton Agosta went to Kauffman for a pair of short scrambles, followed by a just-long pass attempt to Fiore Ala’llima. Agosta, looking to throw on fourth down, ended up darting to within three yards of the first down marker.

With the ball turned over on downs, the Spartan defense took the field and obliterated the Roosevelt front line, swarming Trevor Hennings in the middle and sacking Will Cramer for a fumble on the second play. The ball was recovered by Roosevelt, but Cramer found himself on the bottom of a blue and gold dogpile on the subsequent play.

With 4:44 left in the first period, Nick Stone easily ambled into the end zone on a sweep and quarterback Agosta plowed through a hole opened up by Dane Hiett for the two-point conversion.

Roosevelt saw four downs before the Spartans took possession again. Hiett returned the punt to the 47 yard-line, where Agosta found Ala’llima twenty yards out in the center of the field. Ala’llima made the score 14-0 on the reception with just under two minutes to play.

Roosevelt fared no better on their next possession, with huge hits from Ryan Woo, Trevor Horand, C.J. Walk and Marshall Murphy, and were forced to punt again.

Kauffman nabbed the short kick at the 50 yard line and weaved his way through traffic before finally stumbling at the 15.

Agosta then handed off to Hiett, who ran in for the score — but a clipping penalty on the Spartans negated the touchdown.

With the ball back on the 15, Agosta went to Hiett again for the next two plays. The latter resulted in an uncontested walk into the end zone. Ryan Christoffersen eyed the goalposts for the extra point, but Kauffman bobbled the snap. He snatched up the bouncing ball and barreled his way into the end zone for an unplanned two-point play.

Roosevelt runs by Henry Wright netted slim gains, and the Rough Riders punted again from well inside their zone.

At the 35 yard line, Bainbridge’s Agosta passed to Alex Carter, who ran 27 yards for a touchdown. Christoffersen’s extra point attempt was low, leaving the score at 28-0.

Four Roosevelt downs later saw an onside punt attempt to limit the Spartan return. New quarterback Greg Korsak passed to Kauffman, who lowered his shoulder and crushed Chris Fujii for a gain to the 34. Korsak turned the ball over on the next play, but the quarter ended with a swarm of Spartan defenders attacking the Rough Riders for a loss in yards.

Roosevelt kicked off the second half to Kauffman, who shrugged off two blocks for a sprint-down-the-sidelines touchdown return.

The visitors got no further than the 14-yard line before being forced to punt. The low kick skidded off a helmet in front, and the Spartans took over on their own 14.

Korsak tossed a short pass to Kauffman, who spun out of a pair of tackles to up the Bainbridge score to blowout proportions, 41-0.

The fourth quarter began with Roosevelt’s Wright being stymied at every turn by the Spartan defense. On the Rough Rider third down, a wall of blue gang-tacked Wright for no gain, but the effort left Spartan Logan Bond injured and unable to leave the field.

A twenty minute delay ended with Bond on a stretcher, and his teammates — who all took a knee next to him midfield for the chilly duration — applauding his grit. Bond was later named player of the game.

Perhaps buoyed by a game delay pep talk, or capitalizing on the frozen Spartans’ sluggishness, Roosevelt came back running and gunning. Wright finally capitalized on a carry from the nine with less than two minutes left in the contest.

A two-point conversion play failed, leaving the score at 41-6.

“Our guys were fantastic,” said freshman head coach Sean Eaton, who had partially shaved his head to impersonate football coach Sean Yarr for Halloween.

The team ends their season at 5-2.