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Alec Schwend, shaken up playing defense in the first half, ran for 45 yards on 7 carries. Photo by Don Mann.
Mount Si--big up front and physical--came down from the hills to spoil the party with a 28-6 smack-down of the Falcons under bright Thursday night lights at the splendid new facility in a 3A-4A crossover game.
Nine penalties--including two personal fouls that kept Wildcat drives alive in the first half--proved to be Woodinville’s undoing.
That said, the Falcons had a huge chance to swing momentum their way after Brett Arrivey unloaded a 54-yard punt that pinned Mount Si down at its 5-yard line with over 10 minutes to play, down a workable 14-6.
A defensive stop would translate to solid field position--but it didn’t happen.
Mount Si ran eight straight times for three first downs and passed for another to break into Falcon territory. A holding call pushed the Wildcats back to its own 46, but then came the backbreaker: All four Falcon defensive backs bit on a play-action fake, and Mount Si quarterback Ian Ilgenfritz had wide open receivers deep on both sides of the field. His completion to Dane Hawkins went for a 54-yard touchdown and a 21-6 lead with 5:46 remaining.
Joe Ip brings down a Mount Si receiver after a short gain. Photo by Don Mann.
Mount Si took over at midfield with 4:58 remaining looking to run out the clock, and tailback Matt Bankston ran untouched for a 20-yard score to dim the lights.
“Mistakes,” Woodinville coach Wayne Maxwell said, when asked what he saw out there. “It was ourselves that got in the way tonight.” He tipped his cap to the Wildcats up front.
“They’ve got a good physical offensive line and we knew that coming in,” he said. “They just did a nice job of wearing us down late in the game--getting off and getting a push--and their running backs are good when they get a little seam.”
He said the turning point was when the Falcons failed to get a stop after Arrivey’s punt.
“They did a nice job of moving the chains on third down and just pounded it out,” he said. “There were a couple times we got cut off on the angle and they got outside our backers. But we’ve got to be able to step up and make those stops when we had ‘em pinned down there, to give us a shot at the end.”
For the record, Mounti Si converted on 6 of 11 third downs; Woodinville was 1 for 10.
In his first game for Woodinville, junior Kyle Adkins caught four passes for 75 yards. Photo by Don Mann.
Maxwell said he liked the way the Falcons moved the ball early, and liked the way his defense still competed when the game began to slip away. “But that interception (on a tipped ball) and that roughing the quarterback penalty (on Jack Sturgeon) hurt,” he said. “Without those, who knows what the score is at halftime.”
Mount Si rushed for 188 yards on 35 carries, while Woodinville was 22 for 118. Sturgeon, a junior linebacker, was team-high with 9 tackles
(7 solo) and recorded the Falcons only sack. Arrivey was 14-for-30 through the air for 145 yards.
“They blitzed a lot and I didn’t get rid of it fast enough, I guess,”
he said. “But we made a lot of mistakes as a team. We just didn’t bring it tonight and I don’t know why.”
And then the junior captain paused before he stepped into the brand new locker room to remove his pads. “But make sure you’re here next week,” he said.
Woodinville hosts Monroe on Friday at the Pop.
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