SWANSBORO — The James Kenan Tigers’ season got off to an excellent start on Friday night when they easily defeated the Swansboro Pirates 48-6.
The first score of the game came thanks to the excellent defense of the Tigers who were able to block a James Kenan punt and take it into the endzone for a touchdown to give them a 7-0 lead with 6:50 left in the first quarter.
A few minutes later, the James Kenan defense set the offense up in excellent field position when they were able to get through the line and tackle the Swansboro punter on fourth down at his own 11-yard line. Three plays later, James Kenan junior running back, Cal Avent, scored to give his team a 13-0 first quarter lead, but the extra point was blocked.
Thanks to that score, the James Kenan offense also seemed to gain some confidence, and after a long drive down the field, David Zeleya scored a 14-yard rushing touchdown to put his team up 19-0. After a successful two-point conversion, they led 21-0 with 8:42 left in the second quarter.
The scoring barrage of the first half for James Kenan didn’t end there though, and after another long drive down the field, Cal Avent capped off their first half scoring with another touchdown run— this time for just a single yard, and after the extra point, the Tigers led 28-0 with 2:38 remaining in the first half.
Even down 28-0 though, Swansboro didn’t throw in the towel, and on the opening drive of the second half, sophomore quarterback Austin Zoeckler connected with sophomore wide receiver Jordan Coleman who made an excellent off-balance catch in the corner of the endzone to make the score 28-6 with 8:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Any momentum that the Pirates gained quickly evaporated though as James Kenan set themselves up with an excellent field position by returning the kickoff to the Swansboro 43-yard line and then proceeded to drive all the way down the field where junior quarterback Eli Avent finished off the drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown to give his team a 34-6 lead.
A few minutes later, Zeyela, who scored in the first quarter of the game as running back, put the game away for good when, as a defensive back, he picked a Swansboro pass and returned it all the way to the endzone for about a 65-yard pick six to put his team 40-6.
James Kenan scored one more time in the game (as with the win already pretty much secured) Zamarian Smith ran the ball into the endzone with 7:26 left in the game to put his team up 46-6. A successful two-point conversion then gave the Tigers a 48-6 lead which was also the game’s final score.
James Kenan head coach Tim Grady said, after the game, that their success against Swansboro was due to players such as Zeleya who made plays on both sides of the ball.
“As you can see, our sidelines (have) 30 to 35 kids … but the dudes (that) are here mean business,” Grady said. “(I tell them) don’t look at us tapping your head saying, ‘Get me out.’ You are the dude. Suck it up and play. They’ve taken that approach, and we’ve run them extremely hard this offseason preparing them for this physically, and hopefully that mental toughness will just carry right over to the season.”
James Kenan will play their second game of the season this Friday night when they travel to Newton Grove to take on Midway at 7 p.m.
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