WORTON — After a stellar 26 minutes and change, when the Trojans overcame an early one-touchdown deficit to take an 8-7 lead, the game got away from them.
Unbeaten Cambridge-South Dorchester scored 39 unanswered points to win handily in a rare Thursday night high school football game.
The final tally was 46-8.
“The first half was excellent. We competed,” Kent County coach Harold Somerville told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview Friday. “But at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth, we crashed. And when we crash, we crash. There’s no coming back.”
Due to injuries, Kent County dressed only 23, including 10 who played both ways, according to coach Somerville.
The Vikings (5-0) took a 7-0 lead into the locker room at intermission, after a first-quarter touchdown and successful point-after kick, but the Trojans’ energy and confidence was palpable as they came off the field.
That momentum carried over to start the second half.
On the Vikings’ fourth play from scrimmage, with only 2 minutes and 7 seconds elapsed, Jonah Somerville intercepted Anthony Hughes and returned the pick 77 yards along the Trojans’ sideline. Then, sophomore quarterback Dwan Harris found classmate Dylan Hurtt in the left corner of the end zone for the two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead.
Hughes, who rushed for 152 yards on 10 carries, answered for the Vikings on their ensuing possession, completing a 40-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown run. The successful two-point pass made it 15-8 with 8:13 remaining in the third quarter.
Cambridge scored on its next drive, marching 56 yards after a short Kent County punt. This time on fourth-and-2 from the 30, Hughes called his own number for his second TD of the quarter, extending the spread to 21-8.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, on fourth-and-long from the Cambridge 29, Harris was flushed out of the pocket and tackled for a loss at the 40.
Two plays later, the Vikings were back in the end zone for a 27-8 lead with just under 11 minutes to play.
After Kent County turned the ball over on downs on its ensuing possession, on its own 37, Cambridge scored on the first snap of the series. Tyrell Fennell blocked the PAT kick.
Cambridge added to its lead with two more scores over the final 8:30, including freshman backup quarterback Nate Twilley’s 13-yard touchdown run.
The Trojans, who are 1-4 after losing for the third game in a row, head to Queen Anne’s on Saturday, Oct. 12. Kickoff is at noon.
“We go back at it on Monday [Oct. 7],” Somerville told The Evening Enterprise.
“There’s nothing to do but keep plugging away until we get it,” he said. “And we got it for the first half” against Cambridge.