In 3A NPSL football, who’s the best of the three Auburn schools? We’ll find out soon
In one of the final games of the shortened high school football season in the spring, Auburn played Auburn Riverside. Both teams brought the fireworks.
Auburn won the game, 58-55, highlighted by then-sophomore Auburn quarterback Amari Goodfellow’s jaw-dropping stat-line: 526 yards of offense and eight touchdowns. He rushed for 310 yards and seven touchdowns in the win and passed for 216 yards and a touchdown for the Trojans.
Auburn Mountainview, though, was the class of the three Auburn schools, beating Auburn Riverside, 52-13, and Auburn, 42-6. But the Lions graduated running back Berkley Alfrey, who was the 3A North Puget Sound League MVP in the spring and a first-team selection to the TNT’s All-Area team, finishing with 75 carries for 534 yards and seven total touchdowns. He averaged more than 100 yards on the ground each of his final two seasons, and reset the school’s rushing record with 2,159 yards in his career.
The team also graduated lineman Keanu Mailoto and defensive back Teagin Child, who were both all-league selections and second-team TNT All-Area picks. Auburn Riverside, meanwhile, returns its entire offensive line from the spring season and should be further along in Greg Herd’s second season at the helm.
“The spring season felt like spring ball — the stuff we usually do in June,” said Herd, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Steilacoom. “We had 10 practices to install new game plans, new offensive and defensive schemes, new practice plans, special teams schemes, all that stuff. Everything was just scratching the surface. I feel like it was hard to put a quality product on the field, even keeping things pretty simple. There was so much new to learn and so little time.”
Fast forward to now. Fall football practice officially began on Wednesday. There will be a full-length, regular season to play.
“We have time, which is the one thing we didn’t have last year,” Herd said. “Time for things to marinate, get some substance to them. … They’re picking it up so much quicker. They’ve heard everything times ten now. … Before, it was like we were throwing things to the wall and nothing’s sticking. But now, we’ve thrown the same thing at the wall for so long, it’s starting to stick.”
Auburn Riverside senior left tackle Kone Aumua Uiagalelei, a two-time all-league selection, said the Ravens have a better understanding this year of Herd’s system.
“I think we’re getting there,” he said. “We’re almost there. We just need to bring more guys together and build the team, build the bond. … Our team is ready. We’ve all played together since we were little. We’re ready for this thing. One last ride.”
Auburn Mountainview and Auburn Riverside play in the “white” division, a mixed 4A/3A division in the NPSL. Auburn, meanwhile, plays in the “blue” division, which is composed solely of 3A teams. Despite the three-division structure in the NPSL, all of the Auburn schools will still play each other. And while Auburn may be the underdog among the three, last spring’s shootout win over Riverside showed that things could get interesting between the three rivals this year.
Auburn coach Aaron Chantler, who is entering his fourth year as the Trojans coach after coaching previously at Gig Harbor, sees his team on the rise.
“We had that in the last game (against Auburn Riverside) last year, a chance to play a really competitive game with too many points scored on both sides,” he said. “To win that one was really important to our kids. Our numbers, we started that game with 26, ended up with 25 guys in that game. Those 25 could hang and win and play really well, that was a huge step for us. That intimidation factor started going away.
“It’ll be nice to battle, see what happens. It’d be really cool if all three Auburn teams were the teams that represented the NPSL in the playoffs.”
And that eight-touchdown performance from Goodfellow, Auburn’s QB, in the win. My goodness.
“He’s a good kid, all-around athlete, really good baseball player,” Chantler said. “Amari went through a lot of growth last year during the season, having to realize what he could do at this level. … He’s a dynamic threat. He runs the ball really, really well and can get the job done as a passer.”
Still, until proven otherwise, Auburn Mountainview is the team to beat. The Lions lost some key players at skill positions, but return an experienced player at one important position: Quarterback. Kayde Bodine returns for his junior season, after starting for the Lions the past two years.
An unfortunate injury thrust Bodine into the starting role as a freshman in the team’s first game of the season. The starting quarterback suffered an ACL injury, and in came Bodine. They’d go on to lose that game to Auburn Riverside, but Bodine has been the guy ever since.
“That whole game was a learning experience and after that, I felt like I was playing at a varsity level,” Bodine said. “That first game, I was 14 playing against 18 year olds. As the season went on, I got used to the speed of playing varsity.”
Bodine said he hasn’t taken a day off since the coronavirus pandemic began, working however he can to become an even better player. He’s hopeful his team will stay on top this year.
“I like having the two rival games a year,” he said. “Everybody in Auburn is at the games. … This year, we should have a good chance at winning it again.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
