WORTON — No one remembered how long it had been since Kent County High School’s football team put 60 points on the scoreboard.
That happened last Friday night against Arcadia of Virginia.
KCHS scored on its first three possessions and never trailed en route to a 60-22 shellacking that wasn’t even that close.
Dwan Harris’ 17-yard scoring strike to Dylan Hurtt with 5 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in the third quarter boosted the Trojans’ lead to 35-plus points, 54-16, activating the running clock.
By that time, coach Harold Somerville had cleared his bench.
Jonah Somerville and Kalief Roberts scored three touchdowns apiece and each had more than 100 yards of total offense for the Trojans, who bounced back from a disappointing 35-12 losing effort at Bohemia Manor in the season opener Sept. 6 to level their record at 1-1.
Zayvion Brown (75 yards) scored twice and had a pair of two-point conversions.
In his high school football debut, junior De’Andre Sisco, a soccer player who came on board as the kicker just days before the Sept. 13 game, also got in on the scoring.
After Harris’ 25-yard TD pass to Brown with 14 seconds remaining in the first half, Sisco’s kick was true but there was a flag on the play.
The snap on the do-over sailed over the head of Sisco, who alertly scooped up the loose ball and found Tyrell Fennell for the two-point conversion to extend the spread to 48-16.
Kent County’s touchdown on its first possession of the second half activated the running clock.
“I was well pleased. To me it was like winning a Super Bowl,” coach Somerville told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview.
“It was big. Sixty points. We never put up 60 points, not that I can remember,” he said.
The Trojans avenged a 41-6 loss at Arcadia last year.
And, Kent County won at home for the first time since a 40-0 rout of Washington on Oct. 20, 2022.
Did anyone or anything surprise you, Somerville was asked.
He was evasive in his answer.
“We went in optimistic,” the third-year head coach said.
“They all played well. They all played a major part,” he said.
Harris, the Trojans’ sophomore quarterback, was “excellent,” said Somerville, who also acknowledged the offensive line of center Taeshawn Demby, Wesley Townsend and Harrison Gibby at guard, and Andrew Fennell and Wyatt Toulson at tackle.
“We have receivers that have speed and are good at running their routes,” Harold Somerville said of his son Jonah, Hurtt, RJ Peterson and JySir Valentine.
“Every time we got a mismatch, we took it,” coach Somerville said.
Defensively, Kent County got a big game from Tyrell Fennell (team-leading seven tackles) and freshman Hunter Hawn (five tackles). Tyrell Fennell also recovered a perfectly executed onside kick, while Hawn, Gibby and Townsend had tackles in the backfield.
The Trojans won the ceremonial coin toss and chose to receive.
They started on their own 45-yard line after a short kickoff.
On the second play from scrimmage, Brown gathered in a tipped pass from Harris for a gain of 15 yards and a first down.
On the next snap, Harris handed off to Roberts, who ran 40 yards down the sideline for the game’s first touchdown.
Sisco’s point-after kick was blocked.
However, the Trojans led 6-0 with only 1 minute, 25 seconds elapsed.
They would never trail.
“Scoring first is huge, giving us confidence,” Somerville said in the phone interview.
“Everything with our team is confidence. If that team had scored first, we might have shut down.”
On its first possession, Arcadia (1-2) turned the ball over on downs on its own 45-yard line.
Consecutive first-down carries by Scottie Ford and Roberts moved the chains to the 23, and from there Harris went to the air and connected with Somerville for a touchdown.
Harris ran in the two-point conversion, shedding would-be tacklers along the way, to make it 14-0 with 4:02 to play in the opening quarter.
Arcadia returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and tacked on the two-point conversion to close to 14-8 while running only nine seconds off the clock.
That got the Trojans’ attention.
They put together a 50-yard scoring drive that ended with another Harris-to-Somerville touchdown pass — this one for 40 yards on third-and-9 — as time expired.
A trick play on the ensuing kickoff worked the way it was drawn up as Tyrell Fennell snagged Sisco’s onside kick in the air after it had traveled the required 10 yards, giving Kent the ball at the Arcadia 45.
Ultimately the Trojans had to punt after losing yardage on the series.
The Firebirds didn’t have any better luck, and turned the ball over on downs on their own 42 after being unable to convert on fourth-and-16. A key play on defense in this possession was Hawn’s tackle for a loss.
Kent County scored on the ensuing series, Roberts on a catch-and-run of 30 yards as he zigged and zagged through traffic into the end zone.
Harris then hooked up with 6-foot-4 tight end Valentine for the two-point conversion, hiking the advantage to 28-8 with 5:15 remaining in the half.
The Trojans scored three more times before intermission — Brown for 40 yards at 2:18; Roberts on a 28-yard run, tiptoeing around defenders with 26 seconds to play; and just 12 seconds later on Harris’ 25-yard pass to Brown — to push the lead to 48-16.
After Roberts’ touchdown, Fennell recovered the ensuing kickoff on the Arcadia 25 with 22 seconds remaining to set up the final score of the half.
It was an eventful last couple of minutes before the break as the Firebirds also found the end zone and ran for two with 1:11 to play.
NEXT UP: The Trojans are on the road for the next two Fridays: Sept. 20 at the SEED School in Baltimore and Sept. 27 at Parkside in Salisbury.
