Trojans zap Royals, retain Taylor Trophy

Lightning interrupted the state’s second-oldest high school football rivalry game Friday night, but its aftermath jolted Auburn to a much-needed win.

Following a one-hour storm delay early in the second quarter, the Trojans erupted for two quick touchdowns, building a 27-7 halftime and creating enough distance to fend off deep-pass-heavy Kent-Meridian 43-35 to retain the Taylor Trophy at Auburn Memorial Stadium.

“We just tried to keep our energy up and not let the lightning affect us,” said Trojans quarterback Calvin Liulamaga, who ran for 183 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 187 yards and a fourth TD. “We just had to keep the tempo up … we came out with fire.”

The Trojans survived the long, damp, flag-marred night to post its first win of the season. Auburn (1-2) has won 18 of the last 20 meetings between the North Puget Sound League schools and leads the all-time series, 50-47-13. Only Aberdeen-Hoquiam, which began in 1906, has run longer.

The Royals (0-3) last held the trophy in 2015.

Auburn, which sputtered early and often in sleep-walking to a 7-0 lead, used the weather delay to regroup.

“It’s tough keeping kids’ attention for an hour,” said Auburn coach Aaron Chantler. “We treated it like a halftime to some extent and have some chalk talks, position group meetings and all those kind of things. … At the very end, we had a rock-paper-scissors tournament to get them up and moving, to get some energy and excitement.”

As wide receiver Connor Howat put it, “We came out fired up.”

The Trojans scored six plays after the delay on Liulamaga’s countering, 25-yard run with 9:11 to go in the second quarter. Liulamaga scrambled for runs of 15 and 20 yards and Josiah Fagan took a jet sweep 21 yards to the K-M 25 to set up the TD.

After Kyle Wilkins recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the K-M 31-yard line, Liulamaga capped a six-play drive with a 5-yard TD run and a 20-0 lead.

The teams traded frantic TDs in the closing minutes of the first half.

Following Peter Lopez’s interception in the end zone, Royals quarterback Isaac Cordova hit a streaking Ronald Wilson on an 80-yard scoring play. But Auburn immediately responded when big-back Ronna Brown scored from the 1 – his second TD of the game – after hauling in a 64-yard pass from Liulamaga.

In the third quarter, Cordova found Chris Korman on a 67-yard TD, but Auburn replied with Liulamaga’s 24-yard scoring run. Later, a Howat fumble recovery set up Aadam Nasheed’s 23-yard field goal for a 36-13 lead with 5:08 left in the quarter.

Cordova threw his third TD, a 22-yarder to Nate Jones, to move K-M within 36-21, with 3:55 remaining in the third quarter.

With 9:38 left to play, Liulamaga connected with Fagan on a 24-yard TD.

The Royals rallied on Cole Thompson’s 2-yard TD run and Cordova’s 9-yard scoring strike to Jones with three seconds left on the clock.

It was a frustrating night of almosts for K-M, a program that has lost its last 14 games dating back to 2016. The Royals’ speedy wide receivers frequently got open but dropped several passes.

“We didn’t execute. We didn’t make tackles when we needed to. We missed some opportunities,” said first-year head coach Justin Callander. “We dropped some balls that should have been caught, and we should have been better with our short game instead of going for it deep every time.

“We can tighten it up. We have something here,” he said. “We are going to go back, reassemble and be ready to go, and go for our first win next Friday.”

The Royals return home to open Sound Division play against Decatur at 7 p.m. this Friday. The Trojans begin Valley Division play by hosting Kentlake at 7 p.m. Thursday.