NORTH EAST — Those of us eager to watch Kent County High School’s football team play at home will have to wait a little longer.
Because of the ongoing sprinkler upgrade at Trojan Stadium, KCHS’ home opener scheduled for Friday against Nandua, Virginia has instead become another road game — the fourth of the season — set for kickoff at 6 o’clock tonight.
Both teams are 0-3, so someone will dent the win column for the first time in 2025.
Nandua is coming off of a 41-10 loss to state rival Amelia County.
Meantime, mostly underclassman Kent County came out on the short end of a 34-14 game last week at North East-Cecil that was closer than the score would suggest.
Head coach Paul Tue described the game as “a dogfight” that the Trojans should have won — had they not been without two starting linemen who were out with injuries and another key performer who was ejected during the game due to a disputed penalty for a crackback block.
KCHS enjoyed its first lead of the season after a pair of Thomas Moore defensive touchdowns.
In both instances, Moore sacked North East quarterback Haiden Shahan, scooped up the loose ball and ran it in for a score.
Kent County’s QB Dwan Harris ran in the 2-point conversion for an 8-6 lead.
Moore’s second TD of the night extended the spread to 14-6 in the third quarter.
North East responded with a 28-point fourth quarter against shorthanded Kent County, which was defeated by fatigue as much as by an opposing team.
“We ran out of gas,” Tue told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview Monday, while also noting that many of the Trojans were playing both offense and defense.
Riley Miles returned a fumble for a touchdown with 8 minutes, 14 seconds to play to start the host Indians’ comeback.
Kent County punted on its ensuing possession, and D.D Baum returned the kick 65 yards for North East’s go-ahead touchdown with six minutes and change remaining.
After that, Tue acknowledged, “things got out of hand.”
North East salted away its first win of the season — and first win since mid-October of 2023 — with two more touchdowns over the final five minutes, punctuated by Baum’s third score of the game with 1:44 to play.
Baum also had the first TD of the night, a 37-yard scoring strike from Shahan in the second quarter for a 6-0 North East lead.