By Aaron Lommers Herald Writer
EVERETT – The 2013 installment of the Battle for Broadway wasn’t much of a battle.
Cascade won the annual high-school football game against Everett 52-6 on Friday.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” Cascade coach Joe Cronin said. “It’s a game that’s marked on the calendar every year.”
The Bruins defense held the Seagulls to just six yards of total offense in the first half and intercepted Everett quarterback Griffey Lytle twice.
“Kids have really studied their scouting report and watched a lot of film,” Cronin said. “The coaches do a good job of coaching up position groups. We do a really good job, I think, of tackling. That was a big point of emphasis this season.”
Equally as impressive was the Bruins offense. Cascade scored touchdowns on its opening two possessions after forcing Everett to punt both times. Both scores went to junior running back Kejuan Coleman, the first on an 8-yard run and the second from 59 yards out.
“He’s a hard runner and he has good vision,” Cronin said. “Hopefully, if everything goes right, he will have a big season because we like to give him the ball.”
Coleman’s two touchdown runs gave the Bruins a 14-0 lead after the first quarter, but it kept getting worse for Everett in the second.
Malik Rackliff’s 2-yard touchdown run and Josh Smith’s 50-yard touchdown pass to KJ Brady gave the Bruins a 28-0 lead at halftime.
Coleman rushed for 101 yards on eight carries and Smith rushed for 58 yards on nine carries and completed eight of his 12 passes for 111 yards and one touchdown in the first half. Smith finished the game 9-for-13 for 149 yards, most of which were split between Kaleb Dobson and Brady. Coleman finished just shy of 175 yards.
With the game in hand, there wasn’t much need for Smith to pass in the second half, but that didn’t keep him out of the end zone. He added touchdown runs of 2 and 23 yards in the third quarter to help Cascade extend its lead to 52-6 after three quarters.
Sophomore running back Andrew Sibley came into the game in relief of Coleman late in the third quarter and rushed for 38 yards on his first three carries, including a 7-yard touchdown run.
“He’s a great kid,” Cronin said of Sibley. “We got him some carries and he did a great job cutting back. It’s good to see a lot of the guys who work hard in the scout squad have success and what is even cooler is seeing the sidelines cheering them on.”
With the win, the Bruins enter league play with a 3-0 record, while the Seagulls go into their league games at 0-3.
“It definitely feels good,” Cronin said of being 3-0. “But the big deal is league play. The Wesco South is a tough league, a lot of well-coached teams and some very physical football teams and some very fast football teams. We are going to have to be on our game. It feels good to be 3-0 every week. Our goal was to get better every week and I think we accomplished that. But we have a ways to go and we have a tough league.”
The Seagulls avoided a shut out with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Lytle to Hayden Sick in the third quarter.
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Everett 0 0 6 0 — 6
Cascade 14 14 24 0 — 52
C—Kejuan Coleman 8 run (Spencer Bowlden kick)
C—Coleman 59 run (Bowlden kick)
C—Malik Rackliff 2 run (Bowlden kick)
C—KJ Brady 50 pass from Josh Smith (Bowlden kick)
C—Bowlden 33 FG
C—Smith 23 run (Bowlden kick)
E—Hayden Sick 16 pass from Griffey Lytle (pass failed)
C—Smith 2 run (Bowlden pass)
C—Andrew Sibley 7 run (Bowlden kick)
Records—Everett 0-3 overall. Cascade 3-0.
