COVENTRY TWP.: Necessity is the mother of invention.

In an 18-0 win over rival Springfield, Coventry coach Jay Newcome might have found his quarterback for the future.

Freshman Jeff Kuykendall threw for 172 yards and three touchdowns as the Comets (3-6, 3-3 PTC Metro) pulled away from the undermanned Spartans (0-9, 0-6).

''Jeff has a lot of good tools,'' Newcome said. ''He throws a nice spiral and a very good short ball. He needs to get stronger, but one of his biggest attributes is that he lets mistakes roll off.''

Kuykendall tossed a 3-yard scoring pass to the team's former quarterback turned tight end, junior Brandon Burns, at 4:58 of the second quarter. In the second half, his short pass to senior wide receiver Jeff Walker turned into a 70-yard touchdown play and was followed by a 4-yard strike to senior running back Ethan Wichterman.

Pounded by a series of injuries since the beginning of the season, Newcome and his staff have had to juggle their lineups and rotations. Burns began the season as the No. 1 quarterback, but was injured in the first game and returned at midseason.

''Brandon Burns is a good athlete, but we felt we needed to make a change,'' Newcome said. ''He was very classy about switching to tight end and outside linebacker.''

The Comets supported Kuykendall with just enough of a running game to keep the Spartans honest. Junior Beau Cross had a 15-yard run to set up Coventry's first touchdown.

In the meantime, Springfield struggled to block Coventry's blitzing outside linebackers. Wichterman and senior Cody May time and again were in the face of Spartans' senior quarterback Scotty Cole.

Trailing 6-0 at halftime, Springfield was energized by junior Joey O'Neil's 50-yard second-half kick return to the Coventry 26. But the Spartans, forced to replace Cole with junior Dustin Moneypenny, went three-and-out. Springfield freshman linebacker Dylan Harris answered with a key stop on fourth down at the Spartans' 30 and gave the ball back to the offense.

After one first down, Springfield punted, and two plays later, Walker ran a tightrope along the Coventry sideline to the end zone. The 70-yard catch-and-run broke open a close game.

''I thought our kids played hard,'' Springfield coach Kevin Vaughn said. ''Our quarterback didn't feel good at halftime and it put us in a position in which we were inexperienced. We kind of lost our composure.''

Sophomore running back Zach Talbert paced Springfield with 37 rushing yards on nine carries. Junior tight end Jonathan Hofer had two receptions for 33 yards.

''We didn't make the big mistake this week,'' said Newcome, with a sigh of relief.

The Comets had 223 yards of total offense and no turnovers.