Too much time on my hands...

The music group, Styx, sings it, and Auburn’s offense cradled its lyrical meaning perfectly, holding onto the football for way more time of possession than Federal Way in a 21-14 win for the Trojans at Federal Way Memorial Thursday.

“They were far more successful with the run than I liked,” said Eagles head coach John Meagher. “They had a couple of big offensive linemen and they kept pounding it through them.”

This was the opening game for both teams in the South Puget Sound League North Division and, pun intended, Auburn gets out to a 1-0 running start on the SPSL North season as the Eagles must regroup from an 0-1 stumble. Or, was that “fumble?” More on that later.

Auburn ran out to a 7-0 lead -- following an opening fumble recovery by the Eagles to stall what was a 70-yard drive in the making -- on a five play, 23-yard drive taking 2:07 that ended with a 2-yard romp into the end zone by their running back with 3:23 left in the first quarter.

Then Auburn again defensively stopped the Eagles, four and out, before a short-lived, one-play interception from Andru Pulu, with 10:26 left in the second quarter. The ball was immediately intercepted right back by the Trojans. Federal Way got the ball back, though, making Auburn punt its next possession. Then the Eagles got the ball and immediately fumbled. Auburn scored next to make it 13-0, missing the extra point but taking a big lead on this six play, 48-yard drive taking 3:26 time of possession.

With four minutes left in the second quarter the Eagles struck for their first score as a seven-play, 25-yard drive taking 3:11 became a TD on a 2-yard run in by junior George Williams, a 6-3, 210 running back. That cut the score to 13-7.

Starting the third quarter, the Eagles took flight with a one-play, 11 second drive as sophomore QB Nick Tanielu, (5-11, 195) to 5-6, 140 junior receiver Rian Miller for a 71-yard pass play hook-up over the middle. Miller made some nice moves to get half the pass total, which was set up in the first place by an Alden Coleman (5-10, 170), 25-yard kickoff return run for the junior. Federal Way led, 14-13, at this time.

Auburn, however, took little time, scoring two possessions later on a 33-yard drive taking five plays and 2:26 of time, a third running TD of the game, this time by Jeff Gouveia, who seemed to be the runner of choice for Auburn -- who was shutting down Young early in the third quarter, thanks to defensive coordinator Sam Beesley’s moves.

“He is good at adjusting,” said Pulu of Beesley.

The Eagles had one more chance to win it or send this opener to overtime, but, with six minutes left, fumbled the football. Auburn held onto the ball the rest of the game.

The Eagles can say from this game it was a nice opener to see that they stack up pretty good against the powerhouse teams like Auburn that was a quarterfinalist at state last year.

“We are going to practice more and use this as a learning opportunity,” said Pulu, still undecided for his college choice, which will be Division-1 in all likelihood. “We had a tough first game. We drew Auburn.”

The Eagles should get better this 2008 football season just starting out, and they should get a lot better.

One of their stars, and, perhaps, the state’s best running back (RB Tony Heard of Edmonds-Woodway who?), Andre Barrington was out of the game.

“Knee sprain,” said Meagher. “He sprained his knee (in practice). The MRI showed no surgery is needed. He will be out a couple weeks. We are having him rest and get some therapy.”

The WSU-bound recruit, Barrington, was right up there with UW recruit and redshirt freshman Demetrius Bronson as far as running yards go last season. Plus, Barrington, a senior three-sport Eagles star (basketball, track), is a better all-purpose back (catching the ball) than Bronson critics can successfully argue.

So, no Barrington out there? That hurt.

Without Barrington carrying the ball, the Eagles only kept the football 2.5 minutes of time of possession for the whole 12-minute first quarter. The rest was not much better, in fact worse, in some quarters. Four minutes of the second 12-minute frame, six minutes of the third frame, and a whopping 1.5 time of possession for the fourth was how it all stacked up.

That meant defense was on the field a lot of this game for the Eagles. Let’s see, 48 minutes minus those above numbers (2.5 + 4 + 6 + 1.5) is 14 minutes of the game T.O.P.

“Defense was on the field too much and they had to grind it out,” said Meagher.

Not only was the Eagles’ defense on the field way too much, but they were definitely, as Meagher put it, “grinding it out” against the massive Trojans’ heavy-hitting running backs and fullbacks.

The 6-5, 270-pound Auburn fullback went down in the middle of the third quarter on a play, but the other guy, a 6-1, 230, RB was pounding it through the middle play after play, especially the first half. Together, those two biggies, and 5-10, 200 Jeff Gouveia, amassed 188 yards on 28 carries. In just the first half!

Now, in defense of the Eagles’ defense, they did cause a fumble of Auburn’s opening drive that started at the 29 and ended at the Eagles’ 4-yard line with captain Andru Pulu leading the way. The Eagles’ captain, SPSL North All-League selection, and state preseason Seattle Times poll pick at linebacker, was in on a lot of plays, probably around 15 unassisted tackles and another 15 helping others like fellow linebackers JoJo Warner and George Williams stop the run.

So for all those yards amassed in the first half by the Trojans, only a couple TDs were scored. Beesley’s defense tightened up that goes to say, in the red zone, or a lot more points than just a couple TDs would have come.

The time of possession, which will be improved greatly once Barrington returns, and the turnovers, were the two key areas that hurt the Eagles.

Turnovers?

“Yeah, but I think that is everybody’s first game,” said Pulu.

“It’s good to get that out of way the first game. I know that won’t happen again. The coaches won’t let it.”

Eagles coaches under Meagher not yet mentioned are Bryant Thomas, Beckett Cordes, Marcus Yzaguirre, Keith Wright, Larry Thornton, Robert Middleton and Jacob Robinson.

The Eagles play at home this week, too, getting the South Puget Sound League South’s Emerald Ridge over for a 7 p.m. start of a non-league game at Federal Way Memorial.