Fife’s relentless running attack bleeds clock, stifles Patriots en route to decisive win

Fife beefed up its offense and ran Washington off its own home turf – literally.

The Trojans had the ball for 55 total plays in its 41-6 victory over the Patriots at Franklin Pierce High on Friday night. Of those, 51 were running plays.

“We have great faith in our running system, and it’s a true system,” Fife coach Kent Nevin said. “We are a running team. That’s what we are. We hang our hat on that. We don’t care how big our linemen are, how small our linemen are. We run the ball, and it’s a mentality.”

No single Fife player had more than 15 carries. But eight different Trojans toted the ball on the ground against Washington.

In the first half alone, 27 of Fife’s 30 offensive plays were runs.

Trojans senior quarterback Brynna Nixon completed her only two attempts in the first half for 10 yards. She finished 2 of 3 overall. Backup Brandon Racz’s only pass attempt fell incomplete.

The Trojans ran for a total of 423 yards in the game.

Fife did try passing a bit. Nixon completed a ball down the sideline on one play midway through the second quarter, but that and her other attempt were both called back due to penalties.

It didn’t matter, since the ground game chewed up yards and clock.

Fife’s first two possessions of the game were all on the ground.

The Trojans opened the contest with a crisp seven-play, 60-yard drive, overcoming a false start penalty prior to their second play. Jay Harper-Brooks paid off the effort when he took an option handoff from Nixon, cut around the left end and raced 38 yards to open the scoring with 8 minutes, 10 seconds to play in the first quarter.

Washington looked for a moment like it would answer. Austin Teague completed his first two pass attempts, and the Patriots drove the ball from their own 11 to the Fife 48 — but an illegal procedure penalty on a fourth-and-eight play pushed the Patriots back and forced a punt.

The Trojans wasted little time adding on.

Six more runs, the last for 37 yards from Kamal Johnson on virtually the same set and play that had freed Harper-Brooks earlier, doubled the lead to 14-0 with 37 seconds left in the first quarter.

After that first drive, Washington had little success in moving the ball the rest of the half.

Fife scored again on its third possession. Malakai Koke got the 2-yard scoring run with 5:41 to play in the half. The Trojans tried a 2-point run conversion, but were stopped and led it 20-0 at the half.

“We talk about being physically and mentally tough,” Nevin said. “We want to keep them (opponents) on their heels. We want to keep moving it, moving the chains.”

Faced with that deficit, Teague had to try to throw the ball even more in the second half.

The senior led the Patriots down the field on the first possession of the second half, completing six of seven passes for 77 yards and Washington’s only touchdown of the game during an 84-yard, 14-play drive to open the third quarter.

His 20-yard strike to Derrick Rankin for the score came on fourth-and-17. That closed the gap to 20-6 with 6:09 left in the third quarter.

But Fife just kept ramming the ball home on the ground. The Trojans scored on their next two possessions, extending back to a 34-6 lead on the third score of the game by Harper-Brooks with 7:20 left on the clock.

Harper-Brooks finished with 153 yards rushing on 15 carries. He was one of four Fife running backs with at least 66 yards on the ground.

“When you run the ball as much as we do, you have to have good backs to get the ball down the field,” Harper-Brooks said. “We’re improving as a team.”