Boehme lowers boom on East
EVERETT – Aaron Boehme earned a new nickname this week: Jack, as in “jack of all trades.”
Practicing with the West team in preparation for the 4A/3A East-West All-Star football game, the recent Stanwood High graduate was listed as a defensive back and third-string quarterback. He also became the team’s holder on place-kicks.
If there were a power outage or a stalled car, Boehme probably could have helped with that, too. In Saturday’s 42nd annual game, Boehme showed he doesn’t simply do a lot of things – he does them all extremely well.
Boehme had a short touchdown run, caught a TD pass from University of Washington quarterback recruit Jake Locker, helped bottle up the East passing game and perfectly fulfilled his holding duties on three successful kicks to lead the West to a 17-0 shutout victory at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Defensive Most Valuable Player Gabe Vest (10 tackles, one interception) and J.P. Oliver (six tackles) ignited a stout West defense that held on for a shutout by stopping the East two straight times from 1 yard out in the final minute. The East tried successive running plays to Mead’s Paul Senescall.
Although Locker (3 for 6, 33 yards, 1 TD; six rushes for 39 yards) was named the Offensive MVP, Boehme, who was directly involved in every point his team scored, created the most buzz. After the game, Boehme, who will play for Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., beamed about his unexpected starring role.
“I was just hoping to get some (playing) time and maybe show some of what I had, but (the result) was a lot more than I could ask for,” said the 6-foot-5, 185-pound Boehme.
After holding for Justin Brann’s 41-yard field goal that made it 3-0 with 8 minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Boehme capped a nine-play scoring drive with a 1-yard TD plunge to make it 10-0 with 2:30 to go. Then, after the West defense forced a three-and-out, Locker tossed a high-arcing TD pass to Boehme in the back-right corner of the north end zone. The hookup made it 17-0 with 36 seconds to play in the second, and the East never recovered.
The West practiced the fade-route play throughout the week. West assistant coach Joel Vincent wasn’t surprised to see Boehme make it work.
“I thought he was gonna be part of three touchdowns today,” Vincent said, “(but) they called that (third) one back.”
The sequence Vincent referred to was the West’s first offensive play of the third quarter. Quarterback Jason Harris threw toward the right sideline to Boehme, who backed up a few steps from his receiver spot, caught Harris’ throw and zipped a perfect pass to wide-open Kevin Kooyman, who ran in for an apparent 60-yard scoring play.
But on what had been an incredible day for Boehme, the trick-play TD was nullified.
Officials ruled it illegal because both West throws were forward passes. From the press box, it was tough to tell.
“In the heat of the game, I’m like, ‘No, no, no,’ ” Vincent said. “But it very well may have been a (violation).”
North Central’s Shane Thomas had four tackles for the East, and Lewis and Clark’s Ethen Robinson added three. Senescall recovered a fumble.