Afoa grabs reins to propel Foothill past Boulder City

Foothill’s football team has several players who can set the tone offensively.

On Friday night, that job went to Connor Afoa.

The senior running back ran for touchdowns of 65 and 15 yards on his first two carries to propel the fifth-ranked Falcons to a 58-0 home win over Class 3A Boulder City.

“He just came out and ran hard,” Foothill coach Martin Redmond said of Afoa. “He has the ability to take big plays to the house.”

Afoa rushed for 134 yards and two TDs on eight attempts, all in the first half, including the 65-yarder down the left sideline on the game’s second play from scrimmage.

Keegan Buck returned a fumble 54 yards for a score for Foothill (5-0) before teammate Darius Gates caught a 4-yard TD pass from Parker Riggin to give the Falcons a 28-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.

Redmond was ecstatic that Buck, a senior captain who entered the game leading the Falcons in tackles (32) and sacks (10), had a chance to score a touchdown.

“He’s one of our best football players,” Redmond said. “He got a great bounce; that ball bounced and hit him right in the shoulder pad. He just got it and took off, so it was great to see him get in the end zone.”

Riggin passed for 184 yards and three TDs, including scoring strikes of 4 and 15 yards to Gates and 30 yards to Mikie Charlton.

“(Riggin) spreads the ball around really well,” Redmond said. “All of our receivers touch the ball. People can’t just key on Connor, so I’m happy with the balance of our offense.”

Gates had five receptions for 100 yards for Foothill.

Foothill outgained Boulder City (3-2) by a 414-62 margin, including 297-36 in the first half.

“We talked about getting a big jump on this team right away,” Redmond said. “We felt we could come out, jump on them right away and knock them out of the game. We were able to do that in the first quarter.”

Thomas Shelley passed for 42 yards to lead the Eagles.

Redmond was glad to see his team notch the shutout to go to 5-0, but he cautioned his team’s toughest games lie ahead. The Falcons’ next five opponents are in the vaunted Southeast League.

“It’s nice to be 5-0, but we know these (wins) don’t really mean anything,” the Falcons coach added. “I think our conference is probably the toughest around town.”