Knights preparing for Clarkston Friday
Is this the best defensive team at East Valley since Adam Fisher became football coach at the school in 2000?
“I think so,” he said. “One, we have new coaches defensively and a new style of defense. And it’s game four. They’re starting to understand the defense and how to play with one another.”
There’s still more than half the season to play, and the Knights face a big test against potentially pass-happy Clarkston at home Friday, but the evidence over the past couple of weeks is compelling.
They held Central Valley to 36 yards of offense in the first half of a 28-13 win, and Cheney to 45 yards, allowing an average of 2.3 yards per play from scrimmage.
All told, the Bears and Blackhawks gained a combined 233 yards of total offense and scored a total of 20 points.
In Fisher’s first year, the Knights went three games without giving up as many as 20 points a game but lost all three. The next year, in seven of nine games, EV’s defenders allowed over 20 just once.
But the next two seasons, EV was not as stingy. Even last year during a 7-3 season, the Knights allowed an average of 30.3 points in seven of the games.
So far, EV has given up a total of 39 points in its first three GSL outings, and last week the defense kept the Blackhawks at bay, helping offset penalties that stymied the Knight defense after it built a 19-0 lead.
“We went back-to-back weeks where the emphasis was to stop No. 2,” said Fisher. “If you stop (No. 2) Tommy Kadoya, CV runs off his fuel. This week we did a good job of containing (No. 2 Brett Igbinoba). If he gets out in the open it’s all over.”
A horde of players contributed defensively, keyed for the second week by linebackers Brady Brunelle and Spencer Shaw.
“Brady understands leverage very well, is getting off blocks and is just a smart football player,” said Fisher. “Spencer Shaw plays hard. When you see him on film there are no plays taken off.”
University helped EV’s cause with a 14-10 win over the Bantams. As a result, a win this weekend — or, at least, in two of the three remaining games against 3A schools — would give the Knights an inside track to a playoff berth.
“It should be a marquee football game,” said Fisher. “Two good football teams will be going at it and it comes down to taking care of business.”
Theirs isn’t the only marquee game in the Valley. South on Sullivan, Central Valley hosts unbeaten Lewis and Clark in a game between 4A playoff hopefuls.
The Bears (2-2, 2-1) bounced back from their EV loss to beat Shadle Park 17-7 and moved into the playoff hunt.
Coach Rick Giampietri gave due credit to Kadoya, who he said has been a constant on both sides of the ball for several weeks despite playing hurt.
Rejuvenated U-Hi got a big two-way effort from Kris O’Connor, back from injury, and a clutch catch from first-year senior receiver Matt Hanna on the way to the winning touchdown. The Titans can get their second straight victory at home against Rogers. West Valley is still looking for its first victory of the year and tonight plays Mead at Joe Albi Stadium.
League next for unscored-on Scotties
At this time last year Freeman’s football team was unbeaten after four games, en route to a 10-0 regular season, and had pitched two shutouts.
This year’s new-look team had done it one better during a 3-0 start. The Scotties have yet to be scored upon after wins over Deer Park, Chewelah and Priest River.
Friday is homecoming at Freeman and the start of the Northeast A League season against Newport. Teams in league play each other twice from here on out.
Kevin Hatch scored twice in last week’s 12-0 win over Priest River. He had both TDs in a 14-0 win over Chewelah, giving him half of Freeman’s scores so far this year.
Shootout dooms U-Hi
When soccer gets to a shootout, a lot is left to chance.
Gonzaga Prep made the most of it, University didn’t and the result was a Bullpup shootout victory in a match the previously unbeaten Titans had controlled in regulation and two overtimes.
If not for a brilliant, if seemingly impossible goal by Sarah Dean, U-Hi would have won in regulation. Sophomore Rachael Lopez had beaten the defense after taking a long pass for a one-on-one shot that put the Titans ahead 1-0 at the 17-minute mark.
U-Hi kept the pressure on throughout the first half and for much of the second in the physical contest between league leaders.
But Dean, from 25 yards out on the left sideline, booted a long ball across the field that hooked into the upper right corner of the goal.
In the shootout the Titans missed three attempts, two of them wide of the goal, while Prep easily scored on all four. The loss did leave University in second behind Ferris entering this week’s matches.
Three teams are a point behind in third: the Bullpups, Central Valley and Mt. Spokane.
CV was at Mt. Spokane in a key test on Wednesday.
Harriers hit the road
Central Valley’s boys won and girls finished fourth in Wenatchee, and University’s boys placed third and the girls took fourth in Bellevue during weekend invitational cross country meets.
The Bears had three finishers among the top eight, Shawn Coyle finishing fifth in 16:42, Alex Blackburn a second behind in seventh in the bunched finish, with Tyler Sturman eighth.
Dalton Vaughn (12th) and Matt Simpson (17th) completed team scoring, CV winning 49-98 over Oak Harbor.
At Lake Sammamish Park in Bellevue, U-Hi finished behind Eisenhower (28) and Seattle Prep (88) with 105 points.
Matt Winkler timed 16:26 to lead the Titans and Matt Engle ran 16:45 in the race among team No. 1 and 2 runners. Billy McElroy had the second-fastest U-Hi time of 16:41 as he and Aaron Anderburg were ninth and 14th in a race among Nos. 3 and 4. Aaron Testerman was second among Nos. 5-6 runners, and Ryan Graham was seventh. Cody Brincken was third in the 7-8 boys race.
Gig Harbor, Kamiakin and Bellevue beat the Titan girls, five who broke 21 minutes on the 3.1 mile course.
Leslie Berkseth (20:01) was 20th and Karen Owens (20:15) 24th in flight 1-2. Katy Hawkins (20:48) and Sami Evenson (20:51) were 20th and 21st in flight 3-4 and Katie Owens (20:52) finished third in flight 7-8.