For fans of fireworks, there were bunches of both the literal and figurative varieties on display Friday night at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma.
The Fife Trojans (5-1) ran away with a rain-smeared 42-27 road win against Class 2A SPSL Mountain rival Franklin Pierce (4-2) to push their division winning streak to 11 consecutive games.
“Our kids came out firing on all cylinders,” Fife coach Kent Nevin said. “They were patient with things and then they hit their runs hard when they needed to. We got outside and then powered back inside. It was a nice combination for us.”
Befitting the high-powered offenses on display, the evening’s clash between the Cardinals and the Trojans featured a predictable plethora of points despite the precipitation.
Franklin Pierce junior quarterback Claudell Quinland got the scoring started on the Cardinals’ second drive, taking advantage of a Fife fumble inside its own 5-yard line to throw a touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Dylan Pratt for a 7-0 first-quarter lead.
Fife immediately responded, launching a lighting-quick drive punctuated by a 71-yard touchdown scamper from silky smooth senior quarterback Gannon Ginnis to knot the game at 7-7.
A few stalled drives later, Franklin Pierce capitalized on another takeaway. Starting on the Fife 20-yard line after a Trojans fumble, Quinland tossed a touchdown to his big tight end, Toney Brown, to make it a 14-7 ballgame with 9:53 left in the first half.
From there, though, a nightmarish sequence for Franklin Pierce began.
Taking over on their own 31-yard line after a missed Trojans field goal, the Cardinals backed up after a safely recovered fumble and a false start penalty.
Now on their own 9, Fife pressure up the middle forced Quinland to scramble backward into the end zone and fire a pass incomplete toward the sideline. A flag was thrown for intentional grounding, resulting in a safety.
With 5:18 left in the half, it was now 14-9, and Franklin Pierce brought on the punt unit.
Ginnis showed off his swift feet again, leading the Trojans on a 49-yard touchdown drive with runs of 22 and 32 yards. Malakai Samuelu punched it in from 8 yards out for the first of his three touchdown runs, making it 15-14 Fife with 3:12 remaining in the half.
“He’s a sophomore, but he doesn’t play like a sophomore,” Nevin said. “He’s just that kid who’ll stick his nose in anytime, and he grinds and he doesn’t go down on the first hit. Man, he just wants to hit and hit and hit.”
After forcing a Franklin Pierce three-and-out, Fife got the ball back with on the Cardinals 39-yard line. The inexorable Trojans ground game rapidly chewed through the Cardinals line again, aided by a 15-yard personal foul call for a late hit on tailback Dom Hernandez, and culminating this time in a 7-yard Samuelu touchdown, giving Fife a 21-14 lead.
There was 2:11 remaining in the half, but the Trojans weren’t done.
Franklin Pierce started on its own 42, but Quinland was sacked for a fumble, which the Cardinals recovered, and a 10-yard loss. Two incompletions later, on came the punt team — only to see the ball snapped over the punter’s head for a monumental 31-yard loss and a turnover on downs at the Cardinals’ 1-yard line.
Fife’s Ginnis didn’t waste time, plunging forward for the 1-yard keeper to push the lead to 28-14 with 30.3 seconds left — a backbreaking 21-point swing in just 4:48 of game time.
“We just got it snowballing,” Nevin said. “It got our guys excited. We keep talking about momentum and playing with emotion, and our kids just took that and ran with it.”
Then came the fireworks — a halftime display that brought cheers from the crowd and delayed the start of the second half.
Eventually Franklin Pierce kicked off, and on the second play from scrimmage Samuelu effectively ended the evening with a 63-yard burst up the gut that saw him sprinting into the end zone amid the still-bursting fireworks.
A fitting touch to a dazzling display for the sophomore, who finished with 108 yards and three touchdowns on just 11 carries.
“I just was looking for my line to open up that big hole,” Samuelu said. “Once I saw it I took the opportunity to go … and made sure to do my thing. But it’s not me, it’s my team. Just the intensity we came out with in the second half. We always make sure we come back and dominate in the second half.”
Franklin Pierce did score twice in the second half, sandwiched around another Ginnis touchdown run, but never threatened the rest of the way.
Quinland threw his third touchdown pass of the evening to Daylon Lambert with 38 seconds remaining for the final score, ending the evening with 134 yards on 9 of 25 passing. His top receiver, Brown, had five catches for 90 yards and a score, and senior tailback Rasheed Johnson finished with 14 yards on 11 carries and the Cardinals’ third-quarter touchdown.
Ginnis had just one completion for the Trojans, a 5-yarder, but ended the evening with 120 yards on the ground and the three touchdowns on 16 rushes.
“We have to prove it,” Nevin said of Fife’s dominant performance. “We have to prove that we’re a very good team. I believe in our kids and they work really hard — we do so much conditioning and it really pays off.”
FIFE | 7 | 21 | 7 | 7 | — | 42 |
FRANKLIN PIERCE | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | — | 27 |
FP – Dylan Pratt 1 pass from Claudell Quinland (Daniel Espino kick)
F – Gannon Ginnis 71 run (Gabriel Duenas kick)
FP – Toney Brown 20 pass from Quinland (Espino kick)
F – Safety
F – Sekai Samuelu 8 run (Kick failed)
F – Samuelu 8 run (Kick failed)
F – Ginnis 1 run (Duenas kick)
F – Samuelu 63 run (Duenas kick)
FP – Rasheed Johnson 3 run (Espino kick)
F – Ginnis 6 run (Duenas kick)
FP – Daylon Lambert 30 pass from Quinland (Kick blocked)