Warriors Football Blows Out Medfield 40-8

With six touchdowns and five of them on the ground, KP easily improved to 2-0 with a 40-8 win over the Medfield Warriors of the Tri-Valley League.

The running attack from Joe Johnston (220 yards, 4 TDs) came fast and often as KP took a 7-0 lead after a 40 yard run on the second KP offensive play of the game. Getting to the outside, it wasn’t long before KP had their first score of the game.

“We’ve been preaching and trying to get our running game going. This is new for him (Johnston) and we’re just trying to get him some carries and the more carries he gets each time he gets a little bit better and gets to know what he’s doing a little bit more,” KP head coach Brian Lee said.

After their second three and out in as many series by Medfield, the Warriors quickly marched down the field again to score on a three yard touchdown run by Ryan Dunn to take a 13-0 lead with a little over two minutes left in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Johnston would attack again with an 18 yard touchdown rush to extend the lead to 20 over a Medfield team that struggled to get a first down all night.

Medfield was able to catch KP off guard midway though the second quarter when a fake punt on fourth and four gave Medfield some extra life. A 53 yard pass from Medfield quarterback Steven Ledogar to wide receiver Tom Sears got Medfield down to the KP one yard line and led to a QB sneak by Ledogar for their only score of the game.

“I think it was not so much a funk as a great job. They (Medfield) had a fake punk and then a big play and they were driving the ball on us.”

After a little noise from Medfield, the momentum swung back to KP after Sam McDonald returned a 26 yard interception for a touchdown and then scored the two point conversion on a toss play to make it a 27-7 game with 2:19 left in the half.

In addition to his defensive work, McDonald was also a critical member of the special teams unit, consistently getting KP great field position all night.

“What turn it around was the big interception by Sammy (McDonald) got our momentum back,” Lee said. “Sammy (McDonald) does a lot of different rolls for us and has really come on as a nice player for us.”

Like at the start of the first half, a touchdown from Johnston started the second half as the KP running back ran for 30 yards on KP’s first series of the half.

A final touchdown from Johnston came off a broken play that was originally intended for Dunn. Almost on the verge of being tackled for a loss, Johnston broke away for a 53 yard touchdown run to get KP to 40 points with 1:10 left in the third.

“Someone messed up the play and next thing you know I had the ball and broke it out. I don’t know, it was a broken play and it happened,” Johnston said. 

Breaking to the outside for most of the game, the KP offensive line was more than successful in setting up big gains for the rest of the night. The Medfield defense struggled to get any sort of penetration as the KP rushed for 279 yards.

“It’s always a good sign that the line is doing their job up front. Getting after people and creating that initial seam, it lets Joe (Johnston) do what he wants,” Lee said of the offensive line. 

The Warriors will stay in the Tri-Valley League next week when they travel to Westwood on September 22.