Ferris rallies, tops Mead

There’s something about Ferris football and its penchant for slow starts. Given that, it’s not wise to provide the Saxons with a window of opportunity.

Mead did just that with turnovers and special teams breakdowns Friday night. Ferris took advantage and rolled to a 24-7 triumph in front of 3,809 fans at Albi Stadium in the first round of the State 4A football playoffs.

“We were talking about it all week that we needed to get off to a good start,” said Saxons all-purpose player Shawn Stockton, one of the offensive keys to victory. “We haven’t done it yet. Hopefully, we catch up and play good a whole game one time.”

Actually, the Saxons found themselves fairly early in the second quarter of a game between two evenly matched teams.

Mead had played well, only to hurt itself with two lost fumbles and a red zone breakdown.

The Panthers moved the ball on their first drive and were knocking on the touchdown door their second. But a penalty, one of just three in the game by Mead, nullified a pass completion to the goal line for what would have been a first down.

Instead, the Panthers uncharacteristically missed a short field-goal attempt. Their next possession, shortly thereafter, was fumbled away on the first play at the Saxons’ 40-yard line. Ferris covered 60 yards in five plays, McKenzie Murphy taking a delayed handoff up the middle and cutting his way 34 yards for the game’s first touchdown with 5 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the first half.

Mead came right back, with Ryane Laforte catching two passes for 74 yards. On his second, 56 yards for a score, Laforte played off his defender, reached high to snag the ball from behind and had clear sailing.

But as they have done all season, the Saxons rallied late in the first half.

The key was a 54-yard kickoff return by Garrett Saiki that set up the Saxons at the Mead 36 after the Panthers had tied the game.

Jeff Minnerly went to the air for four short completions, the last for the go-ahead score. Mead botched a kickoff reception that set them back at the 1-yard line and turned the ball over on interceptions three times playing catch-up in the fourth quarter when Mead added its final 10 points.

“I thought we played pretty well a lot in the first half,” said Saxons coach Jim Sharkey. “We just made a couple little mistakes, cleaned them up in the second half and made some adjustments on defense.”

Statistically the game was even. Laforte had seven catches for 133 yards, accounting for most of Mead’s 237. Murphy had some clutch runs and Stockton caught 10 passes and also carried the ball a couple of times, scoring the final touchdown to complete a 14-play drive that accounted for 100 of Ferris’ 235 total yards.

Minnerly completed 10 of 11 second-half passes, primarily to Stockton and Aaron Roberts. Minnerly finished 18 of 24 for 129 yards.

“All of us are good receivers,” said Stockton of Minnerly’s targets. “Whoever’s open, Jeff just gets the ball to them.”

Both teams stood out on defense, as the quarterbacks continually had to scramble and linebackers such as Ferris’ Erick Cheadle and Mead’s Todd Loncosty made big hits.

Cheadle credited the work of the Saxons’ line.

“They kept us open to make plays,” he said.

With the victory, the Saxons advance to the state quarterfinals against Graham-Kapowsin (8-3) next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Albi.

Graham-Kapowsin defeated South Kitsap 41-20.