King’s-Archbishop Murphy game will decide league championship

The playoff seedings for King’s and Archbishop Murphy have been determined — Archbishop Murphy is the Cascade Conference’s No. 1 seed in Class 2A and King’s is the top seed in 1A — but that doesn’t mean the two teams aren’t playing for something important when they face off Friday night.

The winner will be the regular-season Cascade Conference champion.

“Our kids are excited to have the opportunity to play for something that means something,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Jerry Jensen said. “We’re looking forward to playing a really good King’s football team.”

King’s (7-0) has won the conference championship in two of the past three seasons and the Knights have beaten Archbishop Murphy three straight years. Last year’s game, a 17-7 King’s win, was the closest of the three. It was also Archbishop Murphy’s most successful season since losing the state championship to Lynden in 2011, which is also the last time the Wildcats won the conference title.

“It’s important for us to try to re-establish some of that history we have here and winning a league title is part of that,” Jensen said.

Even if the Wildcats (7-0) do claim the title, they still have some work to do in order to live up to the tradition set by previous Archbishop Murphy teams, Jensen said.

“Winning one league title is not winning 10 straight or whatever it was that (previous Wildcat teams) did,” Jensen said. “I think it’s a good show that we’re heading in the right direction. Hopefully we can sustain it. It’s a good start, but I wouldn’t say that we’re back to where they were prior.”

While Archbishop Murphy struggled to regain its swagger, King’s became the class of the conference. The Knights have made the Class 1A state quarterfinals four straight seasons.

King’s head coach Jim Shapiro said playing a team as talented as Archbishop Murphy this late in the season might help his team finally advance beyond the quarterfinals.

“It’s very important at this time of year to have this type of game,” Shapiro said. “This is very much a playoff game and playoff atmosphere. There is a title on the line. This is the equivalent to a deep playoff game, (state) quarters or semis. That’s kind of how we’re looking at it. To have this type of competition right now is actually a perfect opportunity to kind of see where we’re at and to get the kids focused on what the second season offers us.”

Both teams are known for their high-octane offenses — the Wildcats average 49.6 points per game and the Knights average 39.7 — but it is their defenses that might decide Friday night’s game.

Archbishop Murphy comes into the game with five shutouts in seven games and has allowed just 19 points the entire season. Jensen credits much of the success to the athletes he has on that side of the ball, but also to a player coaches don’t often heap with praise — the kicker.

“We’ve been blessed to have a great kicker (junior Ryan Henderson) and so all of our opponents are starting their possessions at the 20-yard line for the most part,” he said. “Obviously, any time you can make a team go 80 yards it drastically reduces the percentages that they score.”

Murphy, meanwhile, has had a difficult time scoring on King’s in recent years. In the past two meetings between the two teams, the Wildcats lost 63-14 two years ago and 17-7 last season — and Jensen noted that the 14 points the Wildcats scored two years ago came with the game already out of hand.

“Defensively, they’re fast and they fly around,” Jensen said. “Quite honestly, in the past couple of years we haven’t been able to score but seven points on them. For the most part, when the starters are in, we haven’t been able to score off them, so that’s a point of emphasis for us this year. We need to match their intensity level and the speed at which they play.”

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

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