Eagles Trounce Trojans In Holden Senior Night Football Game

 

The Eagles football team handily secured a Holden Football Senior Night win by defeating conference opponent Carrollton by the final score of 60-0 on Friday, Oct. 18.

All phases of the Eagles football team contributed to the win in which the home team worked to a halftime lead of 36-0.

Prior to the start of the game, Eagle senior football players Carson Agcopra, Jacob Andes, Aiden Christian, Sam Comer, Sauren Folson, Ryan Hough, Danny Mailath, Dom Pedrow, Gunner Russell, Trent Stout, Kasyn Tevis, Kale Tryon, and Latif Lusia, along with foreign exchange players Alessandro Burzagil, Noah Greissl and Phillipp Hoffman were recognized on the track at the Holden High School sports stadium. The senior four-year team members were freshmen when current football head coach David Diener entered the football program to lead the Eagles as the head coach has now had one freshman class cycle through the Holden high school football program.
“I didn’t necessarily get a chance to talk a lot to the seniors but I did talk to our underclassmen and said you know, this senior class has been the start,” said coach Diener. “When they were freshmen, they were given the challenge that their senior group ahead of them had turned things around to lay the foundation. I’m extremely thankful for that first group of seniors, but then to have the freshmen come all the way through and see them get their night, we talked about it being a tradition opportunity where the seniors deserve the best from the underclassmen because of the work they’ve done. And when you juniors are seniors, sophomores are seniors, you’re going to expect the best of the people underneath you, and they deserve to have your best because you know the seniors are going to give theirs tonight.

“That was kind of the message, and that’s how programs are built. It’s built off senior leadership and underclassmen seeing what that’s like and continuing it to make it get better. For this freshman through senior class, the seniors having them from freshmen you know the first group, it’s a special group, and I’m very thankful for all they’ve done for me and glad they had an opportunity to put a show on for their senior night.”
Once the first whistle blew for the opening kickoff and the game settled in, things rolled the Eagles’s way pretty quickly.

Following a 21-yard kickoff return from Eagle senior Ryan Hough, senior running back Sam Comer ended Holden’s first drive of the game on a two-yard touchdown carry. Senior kicker Sauren Folson tacked on the extra-point kick for a 7-0 lead at the 5:09 mark of the opening stanza.

Junior Justin Brown added to the lead on a 50-yard touchdown run with just under four minutes remaining in the first quarter. Folson kicked the second of seven total extra-point kicks he would convert on the night to put Holden ahead 14-0.

Early in the second quarter, sophomore running back Brody Bockover got involved with the scoring as he toted the pigskin 12 yards into the end zone. An errant snap on the PAT was picked up by Folson and carried into the end zone for a two-point conversion to give the Eagles a 22-0 lead.

Carrollton coughed up the ball on a mishandled option pitch on the Trojans’s ensuing possession. Eagle senior linebacker Trent Stout emerged from the pile with the fumble recovery.

Holden quickly turned Stout’s recovery into points when junior quarterback Wes Brown found Bockover on an 18-yard touchdown reception. Folson’s extra-point kick put Holden ahead 29-0 with 9:04 remaining in the first half.
Bockover, Comer, Justin Brown, and Wes Brown would handle a majority of the carries early in the game as the Eagles built their lead throughout the game, and as regular junior running back Seth Wright gained more snaps on the defensive side of the ball with senior safety Kale Tryon out with an injury.

“It’s a deal where we had to have Seth take more snaps on defense,” said coach Diener. “To do that we brought Justin over, and his speed and how hard he runs, it can be a game changer. It was nice to see that break open for him tonight with his two long touchdown runs, and then, Sam is always going to be our workhorse. It was good to see him break through and get our first score.

“When you can add the quarterback run game to it, you just become more diverse and can’t let people just overflow one side of the ball,” continued coach Diener. “We really felt it was good to get all four guys in the rotation carrying the ball for big plays, so very proud of that group and how many different kids we had score tonight.”

Signal caller Wes Brown put Holden’s final touchdown of the first half on the scoreboard at the 3:28 mark of the second quarter as he called his own number on an eight-yard touchdown keep and carry to which Folson added the extra-point kick.

Senior cornerback Kasyn Tevis added to the Eagles’s 36-0 halftime lead with a defensive score when he intercepted a Carrollton pass and returned it to the end zone on the Trojans’s first possession of the third quarter.

Folson’s kick added to the rout and set the score at 43-0 with just over a minute played in the third period.

Tevis’s pick six highlighted the overall defensive effort by the Eagles on the night in the shutout win.

“A lot of the match-ups up front we liked,” said coach Diener. “With their option game you have to be assignment sound, but you have to have penetration so that way their linemen can’t get to your second level because your second level is so important to get to the second and third phase of the option. That’s the other thing with the option. If you can make things happen faster than what they’re ready for, the ball can come out. That’s the risk-reward of the option game, and we were able to capitalize on those turnovers and get some short fields for us to be able to score quick, especially early in the game. We really felt like our group up front did a good job occupying gaps, and not only occupying gaps, setting the line of scrimmage back instead of getting pushed off the ball.

“That was a big emphasis for us this week, and to see our group come out and execute was really good to see,” added coach Diener. “So I was proud of our front four and those guys played outstanding – Sauren and Andes on the edges, (Jase) Kinnaman, and we have a group of (Jacob) Roberts, Latif, Agcopra, Aiden, there’s a rotation in there, and they played great tonight up front to allow Seth, and Jack (Thomas), and Stout to run downhill. And then, our secondary support was great. Justin and (Chasen) Hall, Mailath and Tevis…we talked about this all week, it was 11 great efforts on every play, and we really felt like we did that defensively and it showed on the offensive side, too.”

Justin Brown added to Holden’s lead on a 21-yard touchdown run that was followed by an extra-point kick by Folson to put Holden at the 50-point mark with the third quarter nearing its close.

Eagle reserve players trickled into the game once the fourth quarter started. Freshman quarterback Truman Wamsley used the opportunity to score on a 30-yard touchdown run with Folson kicking for the PAT, and a 57-0 lead.

On Holden’s final drive of the game, carries by freshman Tyler Minor and Wamsley left the Eagles in a fourth-and-goal situation with time ticking under one minute to play.

The Holden offense lined up in field goal formation on the fourth down play with Folson converting on a 28-yard field goal attempt to set the final score at 60-0.

Time expired during the ensuing kickoff by senior foreign exchange student Noah Greissl.

“The last thing I’ll say is my offensive line from the start of the season they were experienced, but from the start of the season to now, just the speed they’re coming off the ball now, the confidence of what they’re seeing in front of them…Carrollton gave us different looks, they tried to move people, but we were right on our assignments,” said coach Diener. “Good things happen when you’re doing the right thing and on the same page, and they were up front tonight. It was great to see them put it all together and to play a clean game like they did tonight.”

For Holden, Comer finished with 1 touchdown and 128 total rushing yards on 13 carries. Justin Brown scored 2 touchdowns and ran for 82 yards on 3 carries. Wamsley had 1 touchdown and 53 yards on 5 carries. Minor had 3 carries for 3 yards.

Bockover totaled 1 rushing touchdown and 33 rushing yards on 4 carries while catching 1 pass for 1 touchdown and 18 yards.

Wes Brown threw for 1 touchdown and totaled 18 passing yards. He also ran for 1 touchdown and 34 yards on 5 carries. Wamsley completed 1 pass for 17 yards.

Hough caught Wamsley’s pass completion to give Hough 17 receiving yards. Hough also handled 1 kickoff return for 21 yards.

Also on special teams, Tevis handled 2 punt returns for 24 total return yards. Folson scored 12 points on 7 extra-point kicks, 1 two-point conversion carry, and 1 successful field goal.

On defense, Wright led the Eagles in tackles with a total of 12 (4 solo, 8 assists).

Folson accumulated 6 total tackles (3 tackles for loss), 2 sacks, and 1 forced fumble. Stout totaled 6 tackles and had 1 fumble recovery. Mailath had 6 total tackles and 1 forced fumble. Tevis totaled 2 tackles and interception which was returned for a touchdown.

Chasen Hall had 9 total tackles. Justin Brown and Jack Thomas each had 4 tackles. Jase Kinnaman and Jacob Andes each had 3 tackles. With 1 tackle each were Aiden Christian, Jacob Roberts, and Brody Bockover.

Following the Holden football team’s win over Carrollton, the Eagles held an overall record of 4-4, and stood at 2-2 in MRVC-East play.

The Holden football team closes out both the regular season and the conference season with a road game at Knob Noster this Friday, Oct. 25. Game time is 7 p.m.