Published: Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Everett’s defense dominates Sedro-Wolley
Seagulls stuff the Cubs’ rushing attack, win play-in game 41-6
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Everett’s Lucas Sontra (85), Luke Frauenholtz (82) and Aaron Heck (bottom) combine to gang tackle Sedro-Woolley running back Ian O’Bryan for lost yardage during the first quarter of the Seagulls’ 41-6 win.
EVERETT — Turnovers can quickly derail any offensive momentum and the Everett Seagulls took advantage of two first-half Sedro-Woolley hiccups to roll to a 41-6 win in a 3A quad-district play-in game Tuesday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Chase Herrick, Everett’s 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior quarterback/defensive back, snatched a Joe Janicki pass out of the air with 7 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to give Everett an early 7-0 advantage.
“He made a great catch and a great return on it,” fifth-year Everett head coach Will Soren said. “It was nice to come out early and set the tone early in a positive way.”
Sedro-Woolley (4-6 overall), which relied heavily on its running game during the regular season and has been without first-string senior quarterback Derek Garcia for the second half of the season due to a ligament tear in his knee, tried to establish a rushing attack against the Seagulls. It didn’t work. Everett linebackers Gorge Posadas and Aaron Heck and defensive lineman Lucas Sontra shut down the Cubs’ ground game and forced Janicki into uncomfortable passing situations.
Janicki completed 15 of 28 passes for 154 yards, but was intercepted twice and sacked four times.
Janicki’s main target, 6-foot-3 senior tight end Kellen Engberg, hauled in nine catches for 106 yards.
“They did a good job stuffing some of our run game,” Sedro-Woolley head coach Bryan Alexander said. “But in the first half we didn’t get a lot of breaks and all of a sudden we’re down pretty quick and had to go away from what we do a little bit, but they’re a good football team and took advantage of our turnovers.”
The Seagulls (5-5) held Sedro-Woolley to just 31 rushing yards on 27 carries, the Cubs finally got on the board with an Ian O’Bryan 13-yard scramble through a hole in the right side with 2:30 remaining in the game. The score was O’Bryan’s ninth of the season.
Sontra, a 6-foot-4 junior, had two sacks and Posadas stopped O’Bryan a handful of times behind the line of scrimmage. Posadas also added a fumble recovery at the Sedro-Woolley 2-yard line with 3:43 remaining in the second quarter. Posadas quickly slammed in the score to put Everett up 21-0.
“We’ve been playing pretty solid run defense lately,” Soren said. “Going into tonight we did a lot of what we have been doing, we didn’t change a lot, we just thought that we needed to get better at what we do and it happened to work out for us tonight.”
On offense, the Seagulls had nine different rushers carry the ball 42 times for 178 yards. Herrick completed four of seven passes for 73 yards, all to junior tight end Luke Frauenholtz.
Sedro-Woolley, which beat Everett 17-14 in last year’s play-in game, was forced to put the ball in the air during much of the second half and Everett’s staunch defense helped the Seagulls advance to its first quad-district playoff game since a trip to the 4A state tournament in 2005.
“We knew that we needed to try and balance up a little bit, we couldn’t rely totally on the run because they’re a physical football team, unfortunately we had a couple turnovers,” Alexander said.
Soren added: “This (win) was one we wanted to get and now we have to turn our attention to Lakes and, obviously, they’re a great football team so we have our work cut out for us.”
Everett has the unenviable task of going head-to-head with an undefeated Lakes squad on Friday that features a strong running game and several D-I quality players.
Lakes, a 3A state semifinalist in 2008 which has outscored its opponents 438-63 this season, relies on the tandem of Willis Wilson (1,145 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns) and Teddy Cotton (450 rushing yards, nine touchdowns).
Everett’s defense held strong against the Sedro-Woolley running attack, but Lakes’ depth and skill is a different story.
Soren, however, wanted to take some time to appreciate the moment.
“It’s nice to continue our season another week,” he said.
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Sedro-Woolley 0 0 0 6 — 6
Everett 7 14 14 6 — 41
Everett—Herrick 33 interception return (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Herrick 1 run (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Posadas 2 run (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Frauenholtz 14 pass from Herrick (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Koehler 30 run (Barhanovich kick)
Sedro-Woolley—O’Bryan 13 run (kick failed)
Everett—Sissel 52 run (run failed)
Records—Sedro-Woolley 4-6 overall. Everett 5-5.
Chase Herrick, Everett’s 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior quarterback/defensive back, snatched a Joe Janicki pass out of the air with 7 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to give Everett an early 7-0 advantage.
“He made a great catch and a great return on it,” fifth-year Everett head coach Will Soren said. “It was nice to come out early and set the tone early in a positive way.”
Sedro-Woolley (4-6 overall), which relied heavily on its running game during the regular season and has been without first-string senior quarterback Derek Garcia for the second half of the season due to a ligament tear in his knee, tried to establish a rushing attack against the Seagulls. It didn’t work. Everett linebackers Gorge Posadas and Aaron Heck and defensive lineman Lucas Sontra shut down the Cubs’ ground game and forced Janicki into uncomfortable passing situations.
Janicki completed 15 of 28 passes for 154 yards, but was intercepted twice and sacked four times.
Janicki’s main target, 6-foot-3 senior tight end Kellen Engberg, hauled in nine catches for 106 yards.
“They did a good job stuffing some of our run game,” Sedro-Woolley head coach Bryan Alexander said. “But in the first half we didn’t get a lot of breaks and all of a sudden we’re down pretty quick and had to go away from what we do a little bit, but they’re a good football team and took advantage of our turnovers.”
The Seagulls (5-5) held Sedro-Woolley to just 31 rushing yards on 27 carries, the Cubs finally got on the board with an Ian O’Bryan 13-yard scramble through a hole in the right side with 2:30 remaining in the game. The score was O’Bryan’s ninth of the season.
Sontra, a 6-foot-4 junior, had two sacks and Posadas stopped O’Bryan a handful of times behind the line of scrimmage. Posadas also added a fumble recovery at the Sedro-Woolley 2-yard line with 3:43 remaining in the second quarter. Posadas quickly slammed in the score to put Everett up 21-0.
“We’ve been playing pretty solid run defense lately,” Soren said. “Going into tonight we did a lot of what we have been doing, we didn’t change a lot, we just thought that we needed to get better at what we do and it happened to work out for us tonight.”
On offense, the Seagulls had nine different rushers carry the ball 42 times for 178 yards. Herrick completed four of seven passes for 73 yards, all to junior tight end Luke Frauenholtz.
Sedro-Woolley, which beat Everett 17-14 in last year’s play-in game, was forced to put the ball in the air during much of the second half and Everett’s staunch defense helped the Seagulls advance to its first quad-district playoff game since a trip to the 4A state tournament in 2005.
“We knew that we needed to try and balance up a little bit, we couldn’t rely totally on the run because they’re a physical football team, unfortunately we had a couple turnovers,” Alexander said.
Soren added: “This (win) was one we wanted to get and now we have to turn our attention to Lakes and, obviously, they’re a great football team so we have our work cut out for us.”
Everett has the unenviable task of going head-to-head with an undefeated Lakes squad on Friday that features a strong running game and several D-I quality players.
Lakes, a 3A state semifinalist in 2008 which has outscored its opponents 438-63 this season, relies on the tandem of Willis Wilson (1,145 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns) and Teddy Cotton (450 rushing yards, nine touchdowns).
Everett’s defense held strong against the Sedro-Woolley running attack, but Lakes’ depth and skill is a different story.
Soren, however, wanted to take some time to appreciate the moment.
“It’s nice to continue our season another week,” he said.
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Sedro-Woolley 0 0 0 6 — 6
Everett 7 14 14 6 — 41
Everett—Herrick 33 interception return (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Herrick 1 run (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Posadas 2 run (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Frauenholtz 14 pass from Herrick (Barhanovich kick)
Everett—Koehler 30 run (Barhanovich kick)
Sedro-Woolley—O’Bryan 13 run (kick failed)
Everett—Sissel 52 run (run failed)
Records—Sedro-Woolley 4-6 overall. Everett 5-5.
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