Mountlake Terrace roars back to beat Glacier Peak

EDMONDS — For a team that head coach Tony Umayam has referred to as mild-mannered, the Mountlake Terrace Hawks sure were excited after Friday night’s game.

They completed a stunning second-half comeback with a 92-yard punt return by junior Riley Morrin with 2:21 to play and defeated Glacier Peak 33-32. The victory clinched the No. 2 seed in the Wesco 3A South, earning Terrace a berth in the postseason.

“It was great that we kept fighting,” Umayam said. “We definitely didn’t start out the way we would’ve wanted to. One of the characteristics that we’re finding out more and more about this team as the weeks go on, is that this team won’t let up. We won’t play the score. We’ll just keep coming at you.”

The Grizzlies appeared well on their way to a blowout at halftime, leading 22-0. However, on terrace’s first offensive possession of the third quarter, the Hawks showed they weren’t going down without a fight.

“Let’s just go out and focus on winning the second half. If we do that we’ll put ourselves in a position where maybe we’ll have a chance later in the game,’” Umayam said, recounting what he told his players at halftime.

The pep-talk worked.

Senior Ryan Lacasse rushed for 48 yards on the first offensive play of the half and senior Malcolm Johnson scored on the next with a 32-yard run. Less than two minutes into the half and the Hawks had cut the Grizzlies’ lead to 22-7.

Glacier Peak went three-and-out on its next possession and the Hawks needed just two plays to find the end zone again. This time they used a bit of trickery, scoring on a hook-and-ladder play where senior quarterback Justin Hopkins completed a 6-yard pass to junior Andre Johnson, who immediately pitched the ball to Lacasse. Lacasse ran the remaining 46 yards for the touchdown to make the score 22-14 after the extra point.

“It was a total team effort, both the good and the bad,” Umayam said. “We couldn’t stop them on defense and then we got some key stops. They stopped us pretty good on offense and then we hit a few big plays.”

Glacier Peak senior kicker Spencer Pettit made a 47-yard field goal on the Grizzlies’ next possession to give his team a 25-14 lead and stop the Hawks’ run at 14 unanswered points.

The Grizzlies appeared they were on their way to pulling away again after forcing a Hawks punt and needing just two plays for junior Iain Black to score on a 21-yard run.

Glacier Peak led 32-14 after Black’s touchdown, but didn’t score again.

Mountlake Terrace closed the gap to 32-21 on its next possession. The Hawks capped seven play drive with a 56-yard touchdown run by senior Colin Rucker.

Lacasse, Johnson and Rucker all finished with impressive games, rushing for 137, 94 and 61 yards, respectively, but most of that damage came after halftime.

“We went a little bit with the misdirection and tried to get outside a little bit more,” Umayam said. “They do a nice job of packing guys in the box. They’re linebackers play up and aggressive. That pretty much took away our inside running game. We had to make the adjustments where we either had to use their aggression against them or just try to get out in space.”

The Grizzlies appeared to answer immediately when Cole McFadden took the Hawks’ kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, but the score was called back for a personal foul against Glacier Peak. On offense, but the Grizzlies couldn’t get anything going and their drive stalled. Pettit missed a 56-yard field goal giving the ball back to the Hawks with a chance to cut the deficit to single digits.

Mountlake Terrace did just that.

The Hawks needed a 13-play drive to score again, but a 59-yard pass from Hopkins to senior Austin Bates set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Lacasse. The Hawks went for two and failed, but trailed by just five at 32-27.

With less than four minutes to play, the Hawks attempted an onside kick that the Grizzlies recovered. Glacier Peak’s offense sputtered again and was forced to punt.

Morrin did the rest.

After catching the ball at the Terrace 8, Morrin cut the left and outran everyone on the field to the end zone to give the Hawks their first lead at 33-32.

“The ref actually said, ‘Wave your hand up really high when you fair catch (the ball),’” Morrin said. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that. I have to return it.’ That was my mentality the whole time.”

The Hawks went for two again and were unable to convert, but the pressure was on the Grizzlies.

After completing 13 of 22 passes in the first half for 163 yards and two touchdowns, Glacier Peak senior quarterback Brady Southard struggled in the second half, completing just four of his final 14 passes for 16 yards and two interceptions. He finished the game 17-for-36 for 178 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Most of Southard’s first-half completions were to junior Justin Guffey, who caught seven passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. He added two catches for 13 yards in the second half.

The first of Southard’s interceptions came moments after Morrin’s punt return and looked as though it would give the victory to Mountlake Terrace.

But the Hawks made it interesting.

They attempted to down the ball on their first offensive play to run the clock, but the center-quarterback snap exchange was fumbled and Glacier Peak recovered.

“It’s just a bad time to get the yips,” Umayam said. “You get an interception and you think you are going to seal the game and all of the sudden we make it more interesting for everybody.”

The Grizzlies were on their way toward Pettit’s field-goal range when Southard threw his second interception, this time to Terrace senior Gabe Brady.

“Gabe has done a nice job as a linebacker dropping into coverage,” Umayam said. “He played defensive back every year of his career until this year, so he’s a nice cover linebacker.”

Brady’s interception finally sealed the Grizzlies’ fate.

“We just kept believing,” Morrin said. “We all trusted each other and we believed in each other. We’ve got each other’s backs, as they say.”

With two regular-season games to play, the Hawks can rest easy knowing that they have already qualified for the postseason.

“Getting a playoff berth this early is nice,” Umayam said. “The last couple of years it’s taken us until week nine and we’ve had to win in week nine. It’s nice to get this and kind of really look at putting together a pretty nice season.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.

At Edmonds H.S.

Glacier Peak 15 7 10 0 — 32

Mountlake Terrace 0 0 21 12 — 33

GP—Justin Guffey 15 pass from Brady Southard (Spencer Pettit run)

GP—Guffey 29 pass from Brady Southard (Pettit kick)

GP—Devin Woellhof 4 run (Pettit kick)

MT—Malcolm Johnson 32 run (Ivan Melchor kick)

MT—Ryan Lacasse 46 run with lateral after Andre Johnson 3 pass from Justin Hopkins (Melchor kick)

GP—Pettit 47 FG

GP—Iain Black 21 run (Pettit kick)

MT—Colin Rucker 56 run (Melchor kick)