By Andrew Johnson
LocalSportsJournal.com
KENT CITY – The Kent City Eagles had a chance to make school history on Friday, and show everyone they are legit, in a 
conference showdown against undefeated Morley-Stanwood.
And that’s exactly what the Eagles did, defeating the Mohawks 28-0 and improving to 6-0 on the season.
With the win, the Eagles are off to their best start since 1975, when they came out of the gate 5-0-1.
“It’s huge,” said Kent City Coach Bill Crane, whose team is now in the driver seat to win the CSAA Silver Division title. “It’s been a long time coming. This is just great. We had Walt Schultz here today, who was the coach in 1975, which was the last time Kent City had a team this successful.
Kent City quarterback John Meek eludes the Morley defense. Photo/Leo Valdez
“He talked to the boys about the similarities between that team and this team. But this is great and I couldn’t be more proud of our boys.”
Kent City forced a three-and-out on the first Mohawk possession, then pulled ahead for good when they scored on their second drive.
With 4:50 remaining in the first quarter, quarterback John Meek found Cody Bowers for a 17-yard touchdown pass to put the Eagles ahead. An extra point by Hulices Hernandez Ruiz made it 7-0.
The Eagles scored again on their next drive when Gio Weeks broke through the defense for a 65-yard touchdown run, putting Kent City ahead 14-0 with 10:52 left in the second quarter.
It looked like the Eagles were bound to head into halftime up 21-0 when Meek found Bowers on a 27-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds left in the second quarter. But an illegal block in the back nullified the play, and the Eagles settled for a 14-0 halftime lead.
Cody Bowers on the Kent City rushing attack. Photo/Leo Valdez
In the second half, Kent City took its first possession 72 yards in 13 plays over a span of 7:17. The drive was capped off with a Weeks 24-yard touchdown run, giving Kent City a 21-0 edge with 1:30 left in the third.
The lone fourth quarter score came with 2:40 remaining when Bowers punched in a two-yard touchdown to make the score 28-0.
Weeks finished with 149 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries while Bowers added 52 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. Bowers also caught two passes for 37 yards and one touchdown.
On defense, the Eagles limited the Mohawks to 143 total yards of offense. Evan Jones led Kent City with nine tackles.
Kent City, with six wins, has now qualified for the playoffs for back-to-back seasons, which has never happened in school history under the current state playoff format.
“It’s awesome,” Weeks said. “I don’t think it’s happened for like 40 years. It’s huge and I’m just so thankful for all my teammates and coaches who are the reason we’ve been able to do this.”
