Decatur offense struggles in shutout loss to Kentlake | Slideshow

Published 2:22 pm Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Things didn’t look too bad for Decatur in the first half of their 42-0 loss against Kentlake on Friday at Memorial Stadium. The second half is when things fell apart.

The two teams met twice last season with Kentlake taking both games, 56-36 and 47-24.

Decatur started the game with the ball and moved it a little before being forced to punt. It looked like they were going to get off to a good start when James George muffed the punt and the Gators recovered at the Falcons 32 yard line.

The next play was a sign of things to come for Decatur’s offense as they fumbled and Kentlake recovered, ending a scoring chance.

The turnover didn’t hurt the Gators on the scoreboard, however. Kentlake was forced to punt, giving the Gators offense their second opportunity. This time the drive ended in a pick six as Kentlake’s Cody Falkner took the pass 47 yards back to the endzone for the opening score.

The Falcons missed the extra point, giving them a 6-0 lead five minutes into the game.

On Kentlake’s next offensive series, Denny Toso made them pay for going deep with a leaping interception along the sideline.

The Gators offense continued to struggle. The passing game was unable to get going, allowing Kentlake to focus their attention on running back Christian Siva.

“We had problems all around,” Decatur head coach Levi Suiaunoa said. “Really no bright spot on our offense. We gotta go back to the drawing board and fix some things. Christian Siva ran hard, for what we ask him to do. All of that comes down to coaching. We just gotta do a better job. I gotta do a better job of getting them ready.”

Kentlake added another touchdown on a two-yard run by Andrew Dixon late in the second quarter. He also converted the two-point conversion to give them the 14-0 lead they took into the half.

It was a much better showing for the Gators’ defense after giving up five offensive touchdowns in the first half to Spanaway Lake a week prior in their 52-28 loss.

Still, the offense was ineffective in the second half even after a quarterback change. As the defense had to take the field more, they began to wear down.

Kentlake scored three times in the third quarter. Two more touchdowns came from the feet of Dixon as he scored on runs of six and 31 yards. The other came on a 21-yard pass from Trey Helgeson to Austin McBryde, giving them a 35-0 lead at the end of three quarters.

The Falcons added one more touchdown on a nine-yard run by Larry Alar.

“I got to see the character of the players,” Suiaunoa said. “There were guys who tanked it. I want guys who will fight no matter what the score is. And I need them to continue to fight because that’s what we expect of them. So you see some of that out there. They care. Players like Roy [Crawford], they care.”

“At the same time, we’ve got another game and we can’t do anything to change the score of this game, but we can do everything to change the score of the next game.”

Decatur saw an increase of players show up for their practice the day following the loss.

They travel to French Field on Friday, Sept. 18 to face the Kentridge Chargers at 7 p.m. The Gators defeated the Chargers 72-54 last season for their lone win.