Kentridge boys doomed from the start as Auburn cleans up

Published 1:20 pm Wednesday, December 17, 2025

It seemed like all signs were pointing toward a possible upset on Tuesday night as the two undefeated teams left in the NPSL — Kentridge and reigning league champions Auburn Trojans — were set to battle at Auburn High School.

But those signs were bulldozed by a wrecking ball with the Auburn Trojan logo on it as Daniel Johnson and Ryan Hansen’s squad blasted a hole through Kentridge and continued their unbeaten season with a 81-54 win over the Chargers on Dec. 16.

“We were not ready to play from the jump. We didn’t have a great warmup. I don’t know if it was a little bit overconfident? But we have played against them so much, in AAU, and know their personnel,” Kentridge’s head coach Zac Webb said. “We know they are beatable, but we got to come in and knock them out at their place. We knew it was a challenge but we just weren’t ready to play mentally.”

Kentridge had wins over River Ridge, Mount Rainier, Kennedy and Stadium heading into their first matchup against Auburn this season. Last year, Kentridge went 0-2 against Auburn in their two meetings, but their final game saw Auburn win by just a point.

With the history and current form, Webb had a lot of positivity for what was to come in their first game against Auburn this season. But what he didn’t expect was Auburn to score the first 12 points of the game and see nearly six minutes go by before the first Kentridge field goal.

“We know these guys, we know what they are going to do. Our scout was exactly what we thought. We just didn’t execute from the jump,” Webb said.

With two minutes left in the first quarter, Kentridge trailed 20-3, and by the end of the first quarter Auburn was firmly in control with the score at 27-12.

Auburn is looking like one of the best teams in the state this season with a now 7-0 record. Wins at Kentwood and on the road at Kennedy paired with wins at home against Renton and Enumclaw have given Auburn a track record of dominance. Each win, including the Kentridge win, have been by over 18 points.

In each of the four Kentridge wins, they haven’t trailed for a significant amount of time. They trailed for all 32 minutes against Auburn. “Last year our team was good at playing from behind because we were used to playing from behind. This year’s team hasn’t experienced that. This was an example of us having to come back and it’s a good learning experience, it’s a humbling experience,” Webb said.

The Chargers struggled to get the ball over half court in the first half and that really hampered their opportunity to go on any sort of offensive run. By halftime, Auburn led by 18, and Kentridge was searching for answers.

Kentridge has the sort of firepower to maybe not beat Auburn with consistency, but they should compete. Giovanni Moimoi is a type of player capable of making an impact, and his 13 point third quarter proved that, and as the senior leader he is, he will wear a lot of the loss. But for Webb, it’s more about the team’s attitude after this type of a game.

“He was disappointed. No one is harder on him than himself. He feels like he let the team down, but just like how all wins are team wins, all losses are team losses. For him it’s just about keeping his head up because guys look to him as a leader,” Webb said of Moimoi.

Jaylen Keowla finished with 13 points and found his groove in the fourth quarter, but he was really the only response to the early onslaught from Auburn in that first quarter. As a sophomore, Keowla will need to take a step forward if Kentridge wants to get back to the playoffs.

“Jaylen got going a little bit from three. He’s been scoring the ball, but in a secondary role. It was good to see him become the main guy,” Webb said.

Senior wing Damien Diaz might not have lit up the scoreboard with his play. But the 6’3” senior found his pockets in the second half and finished with 6 points.

“He’s a guy where the last couple games were tough matchups (for him), so it was tough for him to match up sometimes. But I thought he came in and had an awesome game,” Webb said.

Kentridge takes on Tahoma at home on Dec. 18 before taking on Jackson in a non-league contest on Dec. 20.

“If we allow it to be a let down, it can be. We all were very humbled by this. We knew how good Auburn was, we knew they were the big dogs, big bad Auburn. We have to go in and take care of business if we want to be one of the best in our league, best in our district. If we allow it to be a let down, then we are going to have a poor game against Tahoma on Thursday,” Webb said.