EDMONDS — Meadowdale started off Friday night’s Wesco 3A South football game against Edmonds-Woodway with a little trickery and the Mavericks closed it out with a little luck.
The Mavericks scored on their first offensive play of the game when senior Jesse Navlet connected with his cousin Nate Navlet on a halfback pass for a 69-yard touchdown. They secured the victory later on when junior Haelin Roberts caught a pass tipped by an Edmonds-Woodway defender and ran 96 yards for a touchdown.
The Mavericks’ 28-21 victory evened their conference record at 1-1 and was the first win under first-year head coach Matt Leonard.
“Our kids just played their hearts out,” Leonard said. “I’m so stinking proud of them. We’ve talked all week about starting fast because we’ve been down three touchdowns in the first quarter (of the first two games) and battled back. We wanted to get out fast and called a trick play.”
The Mavericks had several players step up, but Roberts was the star of the game. He finished with two interceptions and a fumble recovery to go along with his 96-yard touchdown reception. Roberts also recovered an onside kick after Edmonds-Woodway had scored to pull within seven points with 36 seconds remaining in the game.
“He’s a coach’s dream,” Leonard said of Roberts. “He does everything he’s asked every single time perfectly. If he’s wrong, his effort to fix it is better than anybody.”
Roberts had a lot of big plays, but all he was concerned about was his team picking up its first victory. “Whatever helps the team,” he said.
On Roberts’ touchdown reception, it looked as though an Edmonds-Woodway defender had a chance at an interception, which he could have run into the end zone for a game-tying touchdown, but the defender was only able to get a hand on the ball. The tipped ball landed right in the arms of Roberts, who outran the defense for the score.
“I was just keeping my eyes on the ball and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Roberts said. “It just popped into my hands.”
Nate Navlet had his most productive game of the young season, catching three passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
Meadowdale junior quarterback Drew Tingstad finished 12-for-19 for 226 yards and three touchdowns.
“I think you saw the kid that I thought we were going to have,” Leonard said of Tingstad. “It just took him a couple of games to shake off the cobwebs and get those game jitters out of there. I really challenged him in practice yesterday to be the leader that he set out to be and he showed up tonight. That’s the all-conference-caliber kid that I expected. I think that’s who you are going to see the rest of the season.”
After losing a conference opener last week against Mountlake Terrace, Leonard said he knew his team’s playoff hopes would take a huge hit with a loss this week.
“We told them this is a playoff game,” Leonard said. “We know who we have next week (Glacier Peak) and we know what that would mean if we fell to 0-2 in the conference.”
Edmonds-Woodway senior quarterback Issac Jackson completed 10 of 19 passes for 168 yards but threw three interceptions. Senior running back Tyler Rheinford rushed for 118 yards on 26 carries and scored twice.
In a scary moment in the first quarter, Meadowdale senior captain Tyler Ruby was injured and lay on the field for more than 20 minutes before being taken away in an ambulance. Ruby raised both arms as he was wheeled off on a stretcher. The scene was eerily similar to Week 1 of the season against Lake Stevens when Meadowdale’s Bailey Walsh, also a senior captain, was injured.
“Sort of like Bailey, he had some pain on his neck,” Leonard said of Ruby. “I think he’s in a little bit worse of a situation than Bailey was. We’ll go see him. He was in good spirits, but he’s heartbroken being a senior captain playing Woodway, our rival. I think he’s going to be OK. He had some pain right on the spine just like Bailey did, so they sent him to check. They don’t think it’s serious, but obviously we have to be safe with that.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Edmonds-Woodway H.S.
Meadowdale7 7 7 7 — 28
Edmonds-Woodway7 x 7 7 — 21
M—Nate Navlet 69 pass from Jesse Navlet (Julio Abad kick)
E-W—Tyler Rheinford 1 run (Jake Stevenson kick)
M—Harrison White 61 pass from Drew Tingstad (Julio Abad kick)
E-W—Tyler Rheinford 2 run (Jake Stevenson kick)
M—Nate Navlet 13 pass from Drew Tingstad (Julio Abad kick)
M—Haelin Roberts 96 pass from Drew Tingstad (Julio Abad kick)
E-W—Graydon Heron 1 run (Jake Stevenson kick)
Records—Meadowdale 1-1 league, 1-2 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 0-1, 1-2.
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