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Articles
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| Gonzaga Gould as gold in win |
VOICE writes, "Gounzaga Gould as gold in win
Football: Gonzaga 20, Georgetown Prep 12
BY KEVIN HILGERS
Three Saturdays ago, Terry Kernan and the Gonzaga football team were blown out in their opener. The next Saturday they didn't even play because their opponent canceled. But this past Saturday, Kernan and the Eagles finally had a good weekend.
The senior quarterback threw two touchdowns and 224 yards — 194 of them to senior Rodney Gould — in his second varsity start, a 20-12 victory over Georgetown Prep at Buchanan Field.
Kernan, who was 9 for 14 passing, and Gould, who had seven catches, hooked up for several pass plays that proved devastating for the Little Hoyas (0-2) as the Eagles (1-1) captured the Coupe-Kozig Cup for the second year in a row in the Jesuit rivalry.
The Eagles' first win was much different from their first game, a 51-14 home loss to Loyola Blakefield that was followed by a cancellation from Mount Zion of Durham, N.C.
"We had that bye week, so we had that extra time to prepare," Kernan said. "I think we came out with a lot of aggression because we didn't play that one game."
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The turning point for the Eagles, who never trailed, came on a 77-yard touchdown catch by Gould in the second quarter, just after Prep's Kevin McCormick scored on a 2-yard run to cut Gonzaga's lead to 8-6.
On the second play of the drive at the Little Hoyas 23, Kernan tossed a screen pass to Gould on the right side at the line of scrimmage. With help from a block by senior cornerback Cam Johnson, who has committed to play for the University of Virginia, Gould took off into the secondary. He stepped inside Prep safety Pat Glading, leaving him on his knees, and had a clear view of the end zone.
The Eagles planned for a play like that in the run-up to the game after reviewing Prep film and noticing the Little Hoyas' cornerbacks sagging deep.
"We saw it on film all week," Gould said. "So once I got the ball in my hands, I saw No. 1 [Johnson] made a nice block and it was just one-on-one."
The play was nearly identical to one that set up Gonzaga's successful game-opening drive. Gould grabbed 23 yards on a screen pass in the Eagles' first play of the game, and junior Alan Elder capped the series with a 4-yard touchdown run up the middle. Johnson's catch gave the Eagles two more points and an 8-0 lead just over three minutes into the game.
Gonzaga led 20-6 after the first half, in which it racked up 241 yards, twice as many as Prep. The Eagles went into halftime with the last word on another drive set up by Gould, when he caught a 49-yard pass and then an 11-yarder from Kernan to reach the Prep 13. Kernan then lobbed the ball to tight end Kenny Newcomer in the middle of the end zone.
Kernan showed confidence with the ball despite the swarming Prep defense. He made many of his throws outside the pocket, launching while still in motion. The most impressive was in the fourth quarter, when he hit Gould for a first down just before going out of bounds to keep the defensive possession alive.
"I'm not the tallest, so I like to get outside the pocket and just try to make things happen," said the 5-foot-11inch quarterback. "Our line just did great for me today and gave me the time to make those plays."
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Posted on Sep 20, 2007 07:27am.
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