Taunton can't keep pace with King Philip in opening Hockomock Kelley-Rex clash

TAUNTON— It's always a good start for a football team when it scores a touchdown on their opening drive.

Unfortunately for Taunton (2-2, 0-1 Hockomock Kelley-Rex), it was also the only time the Tigers found the end zone Thursday night.

Led largely by their backfield and strong defense, King Philip (4-0, 1-0 Hockomock Kelley-Rex) quelled the Tigers in their opening-league game 28-7 at Aleixo "Tiger" Stadium in the first of three straight Thursday contests for Taunton.

"(KP is) an excellent team," Tigers coach Brad Sidwell said. "They’re physical (and) the game played out like they like to play it."

The Warrior offense was led by the junior running back duo of Aiden Astorino, who had 14 carries for 99 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Andrew Laplante, who had 20 carries for 112 yards. Senior quarterback Tommy McLeish went 4 of 7 passing for 79 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Senior wide receiver Mason Campbell hauled in two passes for 52 yards and a touchdown and senior tight end Daniel Silveira hauled in his only catch for a 5-yard touchdown.

Defensively, junior defensive end Luke Gunning had a pair of sacks while sophomore Tallan King had a sack.

As for Taunton, sophomore quarterback Dylan Keenan went 10 of 23 passing for 118 yards while junior running back Carlos Cruz had 11 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown and senior wide receiver Jose Touron had 4 catches for 76 yards. Defensively, junior linebacker Elijah Prophete led the way with 6.5 tackles while senior linebacker Ryan Keenan had five tackles and senior defensive back Anthony Pettijohn recorded an interception.

The Tigers received the ball to start things off and needed only four plays before Cruz broke through down the middle and dashed down field for the 52-yard touchdown. After the resulting extra-point attempt by junior kicker Trinley Dudley, Taunton took an early 7-0 lead with 9:45 left in the first quarter.

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From there, KP established the pace of play, going on an all ground-and-pound 11-play, 63-yard drive by Astorino and Laplante that culminated in a 3-yard touchdown run by Astorino. The resulting extra point by sophomore kicker Keigan Canto-Osorio drew the Warriors even with the Tigers 7-7 with 3:28 left in the opening quarter.

After a pair of three-and-outs and a second straight unsuccessful drive for Taunton, KP needed just four running plays to get into the end zone as Astorino broke through for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 14-7 in favor of the visitors with 7:49 left in the half following the extra point by Canto-Osorio.

The Warriors added one more score before the break as McLeish, on his first pass attempt of the game, connected with Campbell for a 14-yard pass and then found him in the end zone from 38 yards out on the very next play to make it 21-7 following the Canto-Osorio extra point with 0:17 left in the half.

"The play at the end of the half was a big setback," Sidwell said.

Neither side could break through the other in the third quarter, with Taunton forcing KP to punt on two straight drives.

"Our defense hung in there," Sidwell said. "I thought we’d hang in there and get the offense going but that didn’t happen today."

The Warriors broke through for a final touchdown early in the fourth quarter as McLeish found Silveira open on the right side of the end zone from five yards out for the touchdown, making it 28-7 with 10:56 left to play after the extra point by junior kicker Sean Woods.

The pass was McLeish's fourth and final successful attempt of the game, half of which resulted in touchdowns.

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"Our kids had been playing the run so much and then they ran a couple of play actions and got us," Sidwell said.

With the loss, Taunton now falls to 2-2 and 0-1 while starting its Hockomock Kelley-Rex schedule 0-1. For Sidwell, in order to get his offense rolling like they did in their first two games again, the key is getting their passing game back up and running.

"We’ve got to try to get our guys the ball and protect the quarterback," Sidwell said. "A couple of our passes got tipped (so) we’ve got to get the ball out quick and block it up to improve."

The Tigers now head on the road for the next two weeks, with their next contest coming against Franklin (2-1, 0-0 Hockomock Kelley-Rex) next Thursday. As for preparing for the Panthers, Sidwell said his team needs to keep their heads up and keep pushing forward.

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"Just trying to stay positive, move forward and play a complementary game," Sidwell said. "If the offense is playing well, the defense has to stop them and vice versa."

KP returns to action next Friday as they host Attleboro (1-3, 0-1 Hockomock Kelley-Rex).

Taunton Daily Gazette sports reporter Cameron Merritt can be reached at cmerritt@tauntongazette.com. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @CamMerritt_News. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: KP runs through Taunton in Hockomock Kelley-Rex opener