Classic start to season

SEATTLE – Reading is an important aspect of a high school student’s education. But usually it isn’t atop the list of skills prep football players need.

It was Monday. In fact, if there was a WASL test of football reads, Ferris probably would pass with a near-perfect score.

As it was, the Saxons’ 42-14 rout of defending state 4A champion Evergreen (Vancouver) in the Old Spice Emerald City Kickoff Classic was just about perfect.

So was Gonzaga Prep’s defense in the next game, as the Bullpups showed they had reloaded well, yielding just 49 total yards and shutting out Bellarmine Prep (Tacoma) 26-0, despite losing 18 starters off last year’s 12-2 team.

“It actually unfolded just about how I thought it would,” Ferris coach Clarence Hough said of the Saxons’ season-opening rout. “We knew we were going to be able to break some big plays on them offensively and we could disrupt what they do offensively, what with the way we move around and make it tough to make the right reads.”

It didn’t help that the Plainsmen had all new offensive starters, including sophomore quarterback C.J. Watson. Plus their top running back, Justin Schuele, hurt his knee last week and missed the game.

“Obviously, we missed a two-way starter and one of our two returning starters,” said Evergreen coach Cole Poland of Schuele. “He makes a difference on both sides of the ball.

“But he wasn’t a 42-14 difference.”

Not against a Ferris defense that held Poland’s team to 107 yards rushing and 54 passing. It also forced five turnovers, a lost fumble and four interceptions, the first of which sophomore Mackenzie Murphy returned 24 yards for a score.

“They move people around so much, it makes it hard to find where the people you want to run away from are,” Poland said of Ferris’ defensive scheme, then immediately admitting there was just one player he wanted to avoid: Cameron Elisara.

The 6-foot-4, 295-pound senior defensive lineman, who left early with a twisted right ankle, overcame double teaming to make five tackles, and “put so much pressure up the middle it freed everyone else up,” Hough said.

The Saxons offense ran free most of the second half after quarterback Caleb Rath, by his own admission, improved his vision.

“They did a lot of stuff that made it hard to figure out my reads,” he said of Evergreen’s defense. “I did a much better job in the second half of reading what they were trying to do and making the right choice with the ball.”

At the half, Ferris had 128 yards in total offense. Twenty-four of them came on a Rath touchdown toss to Anthony Zachery that opened the scoring and 5 more on his pass to sophomore Jared Karstetter that capped it.

But the second half was another story. On the Saxons’ second possession, Rath read the crashing end, tossed a quick shuttle pass to sophomore Shawn Stockton and 86 yards later Ferris had put the game away. It was one of Stockton’s five receptions for 119 yards.

“I might have been touched by a guy from behind, but I really wasn’t hit,” Stockton said of the pass and run that put Ferris up 28-7.

“It was blocked really well, I put a move on one guy and broke down the left sideline.”

The Saxons weren’t done, as Rath, who completed 11 of 16 passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns, broke a 42-yard scoring run with 3 minutes left in the third, part of his team-high 71 rushing yards.

Then, on the first play of the fourth, Rath pitched to Stockton, who stepped back and hit another sophomore, Beau Brett, behind the Evergreen defense for a 50-yard pass that ended the scoring.

There was little scoring in the battle of the Preps, who played the middle game of the five-game set at Qwest Field. And the Bullpups scored all they needed in the first 4:13 of the game.

“The start was huge for us,” Gonzaga Prep coach Dave Carson said. “Coming in with so many young kids and wondering what they can do, it was really huge.”

Senior Conor Hare set the tone, blowing up the left sideline with the opening kickoff for 52 yards and setting up a four-play, 28-yard touchdown drive. He capped it with an 8-yard run off right tackle.

Cameron McMillan, a junior defensive lineman, then set the tone defensively, picking off Austin Hoberg’s first pass to give the Pups the ball at the Bellarmine 26. Hare made it 13-0 two plays later with a 23-yard sprint around right end.

“We wanted to come right out and bring the intensity, which we try to do every game,” said Hare, who also added another score in the third quarter on a 13-yard run. “I think the quick start brought us all together and broke the ice. It probably got rid of all the butterflies in the young guys’ stomachs.”

The quick start also put the Lions on the defensive offensively, and against the Pups’ attacking defense, that’s not a recipe for success.

Besides limiting Bellarmine to 49 yards in total offense, the Bullpups forced four turnovers and only allowed the Lions to penetrate into their territory three times.

Another thing the quick start did was take the pressure off new starting quarterback Max Mannix, who directed the Pups’ option offense to 229 total yards. He also accounted for 74 of Preps’ 206 rushing yards and the final score, a 1-yard sneak early in the fourth quarter.

“We ran the option well and that’s a credit to how hard everyone has worked,” Carson said. “They’ve put a lot of time in and it showed.”

Monday’s success also showed the GSL at its best, something Carson figures everyone will find out as the year wears on.

“There are five, six, seven good teams in the league this year,” he said, “teams with good quality kids.”