EV defenseless against powerful Ferndale

BELLINGHAM – East Valley was already facing a tall order in the State 3A football playoffs against top-ranked and unbeaten Ferndale.

Playing without three starters, two of them integral parts of successive playoff teams, made the task nearly impossible, as the 34-0 loss testifies.

Victory was as thorough as the score suggests, even if three of the touchdowns came over a 9-minute span in the game’s final 14 minutes.

It didn’t help that the Knights were competing without quarterback-defensive back Jye Lanphere, linebacker Brady Brunelle and defensive back Josh White. They, along with reserve Todd Matsuda, were suspended from the team and did not travel with it.

“They broke team rules,” coach Adam Fisher said by phone while the team was heading up I-405 to Bellingham. “They’re not even on the bus. It’s not ideal, but it’s for all the right reasons.”

The loss of middle linebacker Brunelle was significant, one Knights assistant said. And without Lanphere’s ability to improvise on offense, EV was left with one dimension, and Ferndale negated that.

Ryan Campbell carried 25 times for 53 yards.

The Golden Eagles offense was a good as advertised, although EV made it work for all five touchdowns. But it was Ferndale’s defense, somewhat overlooked because of the high-scoring machine, that proved the Knights’ undoing. East Valley could do little against a physical and sure-tackling foe.

“Defensively, maybe they’ve been underrated throughout the year because we’ve averaged a lot of points,” Ferndale coach Jamie Plenkovich said. “But throughout the year they’ve played extremely well. We take pride in hitting.”

The Knights had only 19 yards of first-half offense and ended the game with 72. They managed just five first downs as their season ended with a 9-3 record.

“They are far and away the best team we’ve played in six years,” Fisher said. “Better than Pasco two years ago when they played in the state championship.”

The game was played on the artificial turf at Civic Center Field in Bellingham under obliging conditions and in front of a crowd in excess of 4,000. Temperatures were mild, and rain predicted for the area held off until it was over.

East Valley held off Ferndale’s Wing-T offense as long as anyone has, denying the Golden Eagles a first-quarter score.

But it was only a matter of time. Nationally touted quarterback Jake Locker rushed 23 times for 157 of Ferndale’s 363 ground yards and a touchdown, and he threw for two more scores. Adam Wilgus was tough to contain on both sides of the ball. He scored on the first play of the second quarter.

Receiver Rocki Sandusky, despite the best efforts of the Knights’ Matt Volpe, caught two touchdown passes, the first putting the team up 14-0 at halftime.

Volpe broke up two other potential TD throws.

“I knew they were throwing because it was third-and-long. I just looked in the quarterback’s eyes,” said Volpe, a senior. “He got me a few times, though.”

The game breaker, with 1:57 left in the third quarter, was a 52-yard scamper by the speedy, 6-foot-3, 210-pound Locker that made it 21-0.

Ferndale added two more scores, one following a fumble recovery, the other after EV eschewed a fourth-down punt.

Plenkovich said East Valley was the best team Ferndale has faced this year.

“We had to work ball downfield in little chunks,” he said. “So I give them a lot of credit.”