Panthers, Knights playoff bound

There’s a brace on the left knee. A big, bulky brace swelling Paul Senescall’s football pants to almost twice their normal size.

“I’m a little slower, and I know it’s going to hurt tomorrow, but it feels so great just to be back on the field,” Senescall said following fifth-ranked Mead’s 28-8 4A football state play-in victory over Wenatchee in a dark, frosty Albi Stadium Tuesday night.

The win earned the 11-0 Panthers a first-round game Saturday in Kennewick with second-ranked Southridge, a 28-16 winner over Central Valley on Tuesday. In the other play-in game pitting the Greater Spokane League and Big Nine Conference, third-ranked Pasco pounded seventh-ranked Gonzaga Prep 35-13.

“There’s no argument that he’s the heart of our football team,” Mead coach Sean Carty said of Senescall, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior headed to the University of Idaho, “but he’s such a team player, he would hate to have me say that about him. But it’s true. When he’s in there, our heart is beating.”

A torn posterior cruciate ligament suffered four weeks ago forced the inside linebacker/fullback to the sidelines, and the Panthers limped into the postseason with back-to-back 6-0 wins over Clarkston and Shadle Park, teams in the bottom half of the GSL standings.

But Senescall donned the brace Tuesday, trotted onto an Albi field darkened due to the northeast light standard not working, appeared for a few offensive plays and played every defensive down when the game was in doubt.

So how did he do? The first play of the game it was Senescall pouncing on Nate Gowing’s fumble and giving Mead a first down on the Wenatchee 34-yard line.

Five plays later senior quarterback Andrew DeFelice found Nick Proen for the first of three touchdown connections and the Panthers led 6-0.

“What a way to start, huh?” asked Senescall sporting, like the rest of the Mead defense, a new nearly shaved head signifying the unit’s unity.

On the next Wenatchee possession, Senescall had three tackles, including the drive-stopper on fourth-and-9 from the Mead 34. The next possession, three more. When his night’s work was over, and Mead had held the Wenatchee Panthers to 74 rushing yards, Senescall had nine tackles. Plus he added …

“Paul’s so tough and he’s such a big part of our team,” said Mead center Emilio Sulpizio, part of an offensive line that keyed Mead’s 378 yards in total offense. “The defense has pulled together while he was gone, but he just means so much to us out there.”

Carty agrees, and he can be a little more technical about it.

“We haven’t been bad while he’s been out, but with him in there it changes our gap control and allows us to do more,” Carty said. “He also fires us up when he’s out there.”

With the defense shutting out Wenatchee (6-5) until the final 7 seconds – the Wenatchee starters went 65 yards against Mead’s second string to score on KC Skalisky’s 17-yard pass to Pat Heneghen – the offense needed just to be efficient.

It was, despite only having leader rusher Skylar Jessen for one play.

Jessen, who has been out for five weeks with a torn left hamstring, tried to go, broke a 17-yard first-quarter run, then retired to the sidelines after feeling a twinge. His status is up in the air.

But Luke Hattrup (20 carries for 66 yards), Chris Jones (18 for 95) and Andy Mattingly (five for 34 in his first appearance of the year in the backfield) took up the rushing slack.

And DeFelice (13 of 24 for 179 yards) did his part.

He teamed with Proen for the three scores (the junior’s only catches of the night, adding up to 52 yards). And he connected with Mattingly on seven completions for 101 yards when the 6-foor-4, 230-pounder was at his usual wide receiver spot.

“The other seniors, like Andrew and Mattingly, have really stepped up while Paul and Sky have been out,” Carty said. “They filled a gap we needed filled and pulled the team together.”

Now the Panthers have to pull together at least one more time, with the state’s top-ranked team waiting on Saturday.

“We will have our hands full, no doubt about it,” Carty said. “But they’ll have their hands full, too.”