Jerry Jensen began his reign as the Archbishop Murphy football coach with a 22-21 victory over North Kitsap in the Wildcats’ 2013 season opener.
Now, Jensen and his fourth-ranked Archbishop Murphy squad are hoping for a similar result that would send them to the Class 2A state semifinals.
“We played North Kitsap my first year at Archbishop Murphy,” Jensen recalled. “It took us going for two after scoring with under a minute left to win that game.
“The boys are familiar with North Kitsap.”
It’ll be the first road playoff game of the season for Archbishop Murphy (11-0). The Wildcats played a “home” game at Goddard Stadium in their 2A state opener last week. Playing on road presents a new set of challenges for the Wildcats.
“It’s one more variable to add to the equation,” Jensen said. “Going over there on a ferry and the travel side of things is something we haven’t had to worry about yet.”
Archbishop Murphy has outscored opponents 86-28 in its two postseason games, including a 56-21 victory over Black Hills in last week’s state opener.
North Kitsap (8-3) has won seven of its past eight games and comes in allowing just 11 points per game.
“I was a little surprised of the score against Black Hills,” Jensen said of Murphy’s 56-21 opening-round win. “But our boys were pretty dialed in. I was really happy with the speed with which they played. You just have the same approach all year long: We judge ourselves by ourselves. When we go through and look at the film on Saturday mornings, there’s a lot of things we can fix. There was plenty to point out in the film room how we could get better.
“Our boys are excited to keep playing and they want their season to keep going. Getting them motivated to keep playing hard is not difficult.”
Where: North Kitsap High School
When: 7 p.m., Saturday
Key Players: Archbishop Murphy—Anfernee Gurley, jr., RB/DB; Kerry Jackson, sr., RB/LB; Jesus Echevarria, jr., OL/DL; Jackson Yost, jr., OL/DL; Ben Hines, soph., RB/LB; Kyler Gordon, soph., WR/DB; Connor Johnson, jr., QB. North Kitsap—Kole Milyard, sr., TE/LB; Chris Andrews, jr., QB/DB; Sean Crowell, sr., RB/DB; Dax Solis, soph., RB/LB; Sam Henden, jr., RB/LB.
Records: Archbishop Murphy 11-0. North Kitsap 8-3.
Webcast: http://prepzone.kitsapsun.com/football/gotw/
Twitter: @heraldnetpreps
Herald Pick: Archbishop Murphy
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