Kelly welcomed to varsity football with loss at East Prairie

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- At first, there appeared to be no fright of the light.

The Kelly football players, led by seniors Brenton James and Dalton Huffman, marched solemnly onto the field holding the uniform of teammate Kaden Roberts, who died in an accidental shooting in June. They led the procession of teammates, who were also paired up in a line as they made their way under the glaring Friday night lights for the first time in school history.

And when the Hawks officially kicked off their varsity football program with a pooch punt minutes later, they pounced on the opportunity.

Junior Maurice Davis fell on Aaron Graham's kick at the East Prairie 31-yard line, and the Hawks looked determined to hand the Eagles their ninth consecutive loss and extend the mastery over a program that it beat the previous two years on the JV level.

However, the tone of the historic game took a quick turn when the Hawks fumbled on their first play from scrimmage.

East Prairie responded by rolling out the welcome mat to varsity football with two first-quarter touchdowns on its way to a 29-7 victory.

"We get the pooch kick over there and then fumble the first play -- just nerves," Kelly coach Kenneth Riedinger said. "We just don't have that experience yet, and we'll get better and we'll continue to work.

Kelly coach Kenneth Riedinger talks to his team during their first varsity football game Friday, Aug. 22, 2014 in East Prairie, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"I'm proud we just didn't just let them run up and down the field. We made them work for the stuff they got."

Huffman, who had a team-high four catches for 47 yards to go with a couple of dropped passes, agreed with his coach's assessment.

"Tensions were definitely high," Huffman said. "I'm not going to lie, it was a little emotional at first carrying our No. 14 jersey out there, representing Kaden Robert who passed. We played our hardest, we just have to practice even harder. We've got a lot to improve on. It was just our first game and shook off a lot of nerves mostly for us."

East Prairie, directed by junior quarterback Brett Ellis, took advantage of those nerves and inexperience with a five-play drive that covered 73 yards. The big play was a 34-yard run by Ellis that moved the Eagles into Hawks territory. He later threw a pass in the flat for Blayn Gooding that went for 28 yards.

Two plays later Deverance Jones scored on a 15-yard counter run and Ellis ran in the conversion for a 8-0 lead with 7 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter.

When Kelly's next possession went three-and-out, Ellis directed a 60-yard scoring drive, capping it with a 1-yard scoring pass to Jones.

"We didn't want to be the first varsity win, for sure," Ellis said. "We wanted to come out with all we had. We knew they were going to have a lot of motivation behind them in this first one and [wanted to] show them that they couldn't hang with us. I don't want to sound cocky about that. ... I just wanted to show them."

The Hawks did show signs of overcoming their slow start in the second quarter. After mounting just 29 yards of offense in the first quarter, the Hawks splurged for 78 yards in the second quarter. It proved to be their best 12 minutes of the game.

"We got a little bit more focused," said junior halfback Matt Burford. "It wasn't quite as much as a shock. I'm not going to say we weren't prepared because we were prepared. We were just too nervous ... too nervous."

The quarter held a first for the program when Burford scored on a 5-yard run over the right side of the line with 2:14 left in the half. The run capped a five-play drive that started at the East Prairie 34.

Kelly's Matthew Burford savors the moment of scoring the first touchdown as a varsity football team against East Prairie during the second quarter Friday, Aug. 22, 2014 in East Prairie, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Burford, who had fumbled on the Hawks' first play of the game, deflected any spotlight for scoring the program's first varsity touchdown.

"Our team got that touchdown," Burford said. "It's not about the backs. It's about everyone. It takes 11 people to move the ball. That's a simple fact. It doesn't matter who scores the touchdown."

It was the third straight drive Kelly started in Eagles territory and came one possession after the Hawks' second lost fumble.

However, East Prairie needed less than two minutes after the Hawks made history to fashion a 60-yard scoring drive, jump-started on the first play by a 35-yard run by Jones.

Adrian Soto went over the right tackle on a third-and-goal with 29 seconds left in the half and Ellis ran in the two-point conversion for a 23-7 halftime lead.

The Eagles' delivered a deeper lesson on varsity football in the second half, holding the Hawks to negative yardage on offense, blocking two punts and putting together a 16-play scoring drive that ate up more than half of the third quarter and ended with a 1-yard scoring run by Ellis with 10:27 left in the game for a 29-7 lead.

Ellis was efficient at the helm. He completed 9 of 15 passes for 117 yards and carried 12 times for 56 yards.

"He's tough to tackle and throws the ball well and got it to some open guys," Riedinger said. "He was a tough guy for us. We controlled him a little bit but not enough."

Ellis said his team was not underestimating the Hawks, and he was more than willing to impart a few lessons learned in the hard school of hard knocks he's attended the past two years.

"There was a lot of talk they beat us two years on JV, why wouldn't they beat us this year?" Ellis said. "It's a whole new level of ball, but they played good for their first game. They played very good."

Ellis is acutely aware of varsity struggles after a pair of one-win seasons with the Eagles.

"It was a lot better than my freshman year where we were losing by 60 every game, but it was a rough season last year, too," Ellis said.

While Riedinger would have liked to see his team fare better, he did see a valuable benefit for a program that went 8-8 in its two years of JV.

Kelly quarterback Kyle Fitzgerald throws a pass against East Prairie during the second quarter Friday, Aug. 22, 2014 in East Prairie, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"We got to see varsity game speed," Riedinger said. "We can't duplicate that until we see it. Getting that first one under our belt and understanding what it takes next week in practice to prepare for a varsity football game. And we looked good against us, but our twos aren't varsity players."

The Hawks finished with 98 yards of total offense, with its 23 running plays netting 52 yards.

Burford, who had 45 yards on 11 carries, said the Hawks did their best to adhere to Riedinger's pregame message.

"It was to just play our best, give a good effort, that we were talented enough to win this game, if we executed, which we did not, clearly," Burford said. "It was little mistakes and not being used to the speed of the game and the physicality. I think that's what killed us, honestly."

Sophomore quarterback Kyle Fitzgerald completed 7 of 16 passes for 46 yards.

East Prairie finished with 341 yards of offense. Jones ran for a game-high 84 yards on seven carries as the Eagles netted 224 yards on the ground.

"I guess there's a little bit of relief," Huffman said about his final thoughts coming away from the game. "Me personally and all the others -- everybody had nerves. Now that it's out of the way they can clear their mind and say, 'Hey, let's focus on the second one and all the next ones. This one is in the history books. Let's focus and win us some games now.'"

Kelly 0 7 0 0 -- 7

East Prairie 15 8 0 6 -- 29

First Quarter

EP -- Deverance Jones 15 run (Brett Ellis run), 7:43

ÉP -- Jones 1 pass from Ellis (Chad Houseman kick), 3:38

Second Quarter

K -- Matt Burford 5 run (Aaron Graham kick), 2:14

EP -- Adrian Soto 2 run (Ellis run), :29

Fourth Quarter

EP -- Ellis 1 run (kick failed), 10:27

K EP

First downs 6 19

Rushes-yards 23-52 43-224

Passing yards 46 119

Passes 7-16-0 9-15-0

Punts 4-28 2-29

Fumbles-Lost 3-2 3-0

Penalties-Yards 7-27 10-95

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Kelly, Burford 11-45, Ethan Faries 3-12, Brenton James 4-12, Marice Davis 1-7, Kyle Fitzgerald 4-(-24); East Prairie, Ellis 12-56, T.J. Shands 9-35, Jones 7-84, Soto 8-37, Marcus Lewis 2-8, Blayn Goodding 2-4, Brian Shoffner 1-2, Team 2-(-2).

PASSING -- Kelly, Fitzgerald 7-16-0-46; East Prairie, Ellis 9-15-0-117

RECEIVING -- Kelly, Dalton Huffman 4-47, Burford 2-(-1), Graham 1-0; East Prairie, Goodding 1-28, Soto 1-28, Jones 2-10, Mack Marcum 3-39, Lewis 1-10, Davon Douglas 1-2,