Jeff Gouveia wasn’t about to let his team lose their season-opening South Puget Sound League football showdown against seventh-ranked Federal Way last Thursday night.
The 5-foot-10, 220-pound, do-everything player for Auburn High School didn’t let a missed an extra-point attempt late in the second quarter derail the Trojans. Gouveia tallied the go-ahead touchdown and the ensuing two-point conversion late in the third quarter, leading Auburn to a 21-14 victory at Federal Way Memorial Stadium.
“I told coach (Gordon Elliott) to give me the ball,” said Gouveia, who finished with 126 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 21 carries. “I will carry the team, and that’s what I did.”
It was Auburn’s first game as a Class 4A school since 2005 and it came against the defending North Division champs.
“He is a hell of a football player,” Federal Way head coach John Meagher said of Gouveia. “He is a rock. Hats off to him. Auburn is a physical football team. A couple good runners, a big offensive line. They just kept pounding us.”
Federal Way had no answer for Gouveia and the rest of the power running game of the Trojans’ offense. Auburn finished with 284 yards on the ground.
But it was the Auburn defense that stuffed the Federal Way running game all night. The Trojans controlled the line of scrimmage and limited the Eagles to a grand total of 12 rushing yards and three first downs.
In the second half, Federal Way tallied zero yards on the ground and just one first down.“The bottom line is their kids stepped up,” Meagher said. “They are a good football team and they came out of the gate better than us.”
To further illustrate Auburn’s dominance of the game, its offense got off 61 plays from scrimmage, while Federal Way lined up just 34 times.
Despite the domination on both sides of the ball, Federal Way actually was leading late in the third quarter, thanks to a pair of big plays. The Eagles overcame a 13-0 Auburn lead with 14 unanswered points.
George Williams tallied the Eagles’ first touchdown of the night with just 39 seconds remaining in the first half on a 3-yard run up the middle. The seven-play drive was set up by senior Niko Curran’s 60-yard kickoff return to Auburn’s 25.
The second half opened Federal Way junior quarterback Nick Tanielu connecting on a 66-yard touchdown pass to Rian Miller to make it 14-13 just 22 seconds into the third quarter.
But the Trojans didn’t panic and just leaned a little more on the wide shoulders of Gouveia.
“I told my players to stay focused,” he said. “We got this.”
Gouveia capped a five-play, 33-yard drive with the 5-yard touchdown run up the middle and also ran in the ensuing two-point conversion to put the Trojans up for good, 21-14. Gouveia’s first touchdown of the night came with four minutes left in the second quarter on a 6-yard run to put Auburn up 13-0.
The Trojans played without senior quarterback/defensive back Carlo Lavoie, who didn’t have the required 12 practices to compete in a game. Marshall Klontz, who started two games last season, filled in for Lavoie.
