Kinder didn’t play its best game on Friday night.
Whether it was the rain-soaked field or a simple lack of execution on offense, the Yellow Jackets committed some miscues and struggled to maintain lengthy possessions. Yet, the team found a way to pull out a hard-fought road victory.
Led by the defense pitching a shutout in the final three quarters, Kinder rallied for a 14-6 victory over Church Point.
“The execution needs to be better on offense moving forward but credit Church Point whose defense played well,” Kinder first-year coach Justin Reed said. “I am very proud of our defense for bailing us out all night, and it was nice to come out with such a hard-fought victory.”
After the game was delayed an hour due to rain and lighting, the two teams showed some promise on their first offensive possessions.
A few strong running plays and a first-down pass to Donte’ Botley got things rolling for Kinder. The drive though would end with a run on fourth and four as Church Point linebacker Landon Angelle stuffed the run.
The Battling Bears took over on their 46-yard line and Jaheim Moore took a handoff and busted it around the right side down to the 14-yard line. Kinder’s defense stood tall and forced Reese out of bounds short of the first down marker on fourth down.
Kinder (2-0) was forced to punt on its next drive but a bad snap on the attempt gave Church Point the ball at the 23-yard line with 4:37 left in the opening quarter. The very next play Damerian Guy took the handoff and went around the right side for a 23-yard touchdown.
“I thought we got a hat on a hat and our back made the right cuts,” Church Point first-year coach Rob Pool said.
Church Point (1-1) decided to go for the two-point conversion but Kinder’s Eli Self and Braysen Bowring combined to stuff the run attempt.
“Looking at the outcome of the game, it ended up being huge,” Reed said. “But at the time it was just another play for our defense. We had a good idea of what they were trying to do all week and our kids were able to take that information into the game.”
Kinder seemed to build off that defensive momentum in the first half.
The Yellow Jackets came up big over and over again against the Battling Bears offense.
There was a third-down sack by Self that forced a punt, Erick Lavan and Bowring got a key stop in the backfield, the team forced a turnover on downs and Self recovered a fumble near midfield.
“I thought their linebackers played well and stopped the sweep and jet that gets the rest of our offense going,” Pool said. “Once we got in the red zone, we always seemed to have a penalty or negative play that stalled the drive.”
Self — a sophomore — had a monster game with a two-point conversion stop, sack, and fumble recovery.
“Eli is a young kid who is playing well for us right now,” Reed said. “You know you’re always going to get relentless effort out of him, and that’s why he found himself in the middle of some of our biggest plays of the night.”
As Kinder’s defense was frustrating Church Point’s offense, the Yellow Jacket offense found its groove as the game progressed.
Despite the wet conditions early on, Kinder would end the game with 173 rushing yards and leaned on that running game in the second half to extend its lead and eat the clock to seal the victory.
“I think it was just sticking to what we do as an offense,” Reed said “They did a great job of giving us a different look almost every play so we had to just stick to our rules up front and play fast. It helps to have guys like we have in the backfield that are tough to tackle for an entire four-quarter game.”
For Kinder, one of those tough-to-tackle runners was Logan LeBeouf.
LeBouef put the Yellow Jackets on the board in the second quarter with a 21-yard touchdown run. The extra point gave Kinder a 7-6 lead. The Yellow Jackets added to that lead with another long touchdown run by LeBeouf, as he added a 30-yard touchdown run with 4:23 left in the third.
LeBeouf led the team with 121 yards on 20 carries.
“He ran tough,” Reed said. “It wasn’t always good sledding between the tackles, but he ended up with over 100 yards.”
Kinder only found the end zone twice in the game as Church Point’s defense bottled up their offense too.
“I thought our defense played with good discipline versus the option and held the point versus zone dive pretty well,” Pool said. “I thought they continued to answer the bell late in the game to give us more opportunities to get the ball back.”
Even though they didn’t cross the 150-yard threshold, the two touchdown drives proved to be enough. That’s because despite giving up 141 yards on the ground, Kinder’s defense kept Church Point out of the end zone for the remaining three quarters.
“This was a team win,” Kinder quarterback Landon Rice said. “The defense stepped up and took control of the game, and we fought for four quarters.”
