High school football: Tigers shut out Kennedy to improve to 3-0

Sep. 3—For the second year in a row, the Tokay High football team has started with a 3-0 record.

With Friday's 36-0 shutout against Kennedy in Sacramento, the Tigers have allowed 14 total points across the first three games.

"It's great. You know, something that I want us to get used to," Tokay coach Collin Rhoads said about the team's 3-0 record. "We're doing the right things."

Rhoads pointed to the defense as the team's strength, adding that of those 14 points, 8 came on a special teams play. On Friday, two of the Tigers' touchdowns came on pick-sixes by Barrett Crosby and Marcelino Ruiz.

"Our defensive line is just getting after it, and it's a lot of second year players, seniors on that defensive line who are constantly in the backfield," Rhoads said. "(Richard) Mendonca tonight had four sacks, so that talks highly of all the work he's put in, and our defense was just flying everywhere."

Crosby opened the game with a 5-yard touchdown run, and Ruiz added to that with a 45-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Timmy "TK" Karagounis, sprung by a Jason Evans block.

After the two interception returns, Herman Barba, the team's short-yardage specialist, scored on a 2-yard run to put an exclamation point on the shutout.

And that was all before halftime. The second half went by quickly on a running clock.

"We were able to run the rock pretty well tonight. Our offensive line did a great job," Rhoads said. "Our starting center, Vince Marin, down with a knee injury. We don't know anything further on that. When the center goes down, you have to make a lot of changes, and I think we responded, the guys who came in did well, and we were able to protect our QB tonight."

Tokay will have a tougher test on its hands next week when it hits the road again to face West Park in Roseville. West Park, a new school with its first class of seniors, took down Pleasant Grove 50-7 on Friday and stand with a 2-0 record.