One month ago we made our way to Seattle to face our final non-league opponent of the regular season. Our opponent, Seattle Lutheran, had a huge home field advantage. After a seven o'clock departure and a four hour drive, we arrived at West Seattle Stadium. But the stewards hadn't opened the field gates so we were forced to wait around for another hour or so. Even after gaining access to the stadium, the locker rooms were still locked so we had to dress in the grandstands. That was not very fun. By the time warm-ups started, we were already rattled and tired of waiting around. The delays kind of took us out of our game. Anyway we ended up losing to the Saints 22-19 on a late fourth quarter touchdown. We thought we had seen the last of Seattle Lutheran... well we were wrong. Our chance at revenge came 31 days later at Sammamish High School.
There were no waits and we got down to business right away. Warm-ups were smooth, a trend that followed us into the game. We won the toss and elected to receive. However a fumble at midfield gave the ball to the Saints. Their first run resulted in a first down, but after that, we stuffed the holes and they were forced to punt. On the ensuing drive, Austin Burkhalter had a one yard touchdown plunge and Caleb Corona followed with the PAT. After kickoff, our "D" forced a three and out punt. Nick Hines scored on a nice run and the first stanza ended 14-0. We managed to score a final time before half giving ourselves a comfortable 20-0 lead at halftime. But the game wasn't over. Walking through the Saints locker room on our way to the field (Sammamish High had a really weird floor plan), we heard their "0-0" chant and that pumped us up even more. We thought if it is 0-0 well we might as well win the second half.
We kicked off to start the third quarter. And after another three and out punt, Tony "Cheetah" Fletcher ran to paydirt on the first offensive play of the half. Fletcher scored once more in the final stanza. 35-0. The only Saint touchdown came in the 4th quarter after our final score and a nice kick return to their our forty. We had avenged our loss earlier in the season, but more importantly we won a first round playoff game! Next week we play Willapa Valley, who beat Tacoma Baptist (A team Seattle Lutheran beat in regular season) by a score of 32-7 in the first round. Our only league loss was to Valley and we are all geared up for another shot at the Vikings, who in the past weeks have really developed their air assault. Last year we played Life Christian in the second round of the playoffs and we were all a little intimidated. Having already played Valley, even though we lost, we are confident in our chance at victory. We held Valley to 33 yards of offense in the second half when we played up in Menlo, while amassing over 150 yards ourselves. That confidence is still with us. Second round here we come!
Alan Erickson
NHS FB LB
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