‘We just came out and whupped on them’

Published 11:40 pm Friday, September 12, 2008

MARYSVILLE — The Marysville-Pilchuck football team has a simple offensive strategy: when in doubt, hand the ball to Austin Denton.

The junior running back rushed 27 times for 218 yards — his second consecutive game of 200-plus yards rushing — and scored two touchdowns as the Tomahawks routed the Panthers 34-7 in the Wesco North opener for both squads Friday night at Quil Ceda Stadium.

“Words can’t explain what happened tonight,” Denton said. “It’s very big. Bigger than anything else ever … I thought it was actually going to be a really close game today and we just came out and whupped on them — we took it to the house, baby.”

Denton had touchdown runs in each half and senior Caleb Posey rushed 13 times for 71 yards and a touchdown as M-P secured their first home victory against the Panthers since 1958.

“Their line killed us,” said Snohomish coach Mark Perry. “They knocked us off the ball every down. We couldn’t stop the ball. They controlled the line of scrimmage, they won the hitting game, they did some things right. They played a (heckuva) ball game.”

The Tomahawks were equally as dominant on the defensive side of the ball. They contained Snohomish running back Ray Purviance — who rushed for 152 yards in the Panthers’ 24-7 season-opening win over Kamiak last week — and limited the Panthers offense to just 43 rushing yards and just three first downs total — all in the first half.

“Absolutely,” said M-P coach Brandon Carson when asked if the defense’s plan was to shut down Purviance. “He’s a tough kid, he hits the hole really hard and I thought we did a good job slowing him down and stopping him.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Marysville-Pilchuck caught its break early in the second. With Snohomish facing fourth-and-15 at the Tomahawks’ 37, M-P defensive end Brennan Steinbaugh broke through the line to sack the Snohomish quarterback and the Tomahawks took over on downs.

The Tomahawks capitalized on that momentum with its first scoring drive, highlighted by Denton runs of 9, 18 and 28 yards. He capped the drive by taking it in from the 1-yard line on what appeared to be a second-effort surge. That gave M-P a 7-0 lead with 5:49 to play in the half.

“We struggled to get it going we had to fix a few things,” Carson said of his team’s slow first quarter start.

On the Tomahawks’ next possession, Denton broke for runs of 6, 11 and 4 yards before M-P quarterback Nick Forsythe hooked up with receiver Levi Cartas for a 14-yard pickup — the Tomahawks’ only pass attempt of the half — to put the ball at the Snohomish 13-yard line. Four plays later, Travis Sanderson ran up the left side into the end zone for the 14-0 lead with 47 seconds remaining in the half.

Marysville-Pilchuck showed itself to be more than a one dimensional team in the second half. They ran the ball 16 times on an 18-play drive that ate up 9:31 of the third quarter, but broke it up with Devin Peterson completions to Cartas of 10 and 6 yards, the latter for a touchdown with 2:29 to go in the third quarter. The kick was blocked, leaving M-P with a 20-0 lead.

The Panthers’ only flash of life came on the ensuing kickoff which Cameron Woolsey ran back 75 yards for Snohomish’s lone score of the game.

Denton broke for a 52-yard touchdown score as time expired in the third quarter to boost M-P’s lead to 27-7.

“The best defense is a good offense,” Carson said. “We got the ball back and scored and we were pretty efficient. I thought we played great defensively. We did a great job stopping their run game.”

The Tomahawks kept piling it on. Posey broke for a 10-yard touchdown score to cap an 8-play, 39-yard drive with 5:30 remaining.

“That’s why you play 10 (games),” Perry said. “We need to come back and win the next five games and get ourselves back into the playoff picture.”

At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.

Snohomish0070— 7

M-P014137—34

M-P — Denton 1 run (Stokes kick)

M-P — Sanderson 6 run (Stokes kick)

M-P — Cartas 6 pass from Peterson (kick failed)

Snohomish — Woolsey 75 kick return (Moe kick)

M-P — Denton 52 run (Stokes kick)

M-P — Posey 10 run (Stokes kick)

Records—M-P 1-0 league, 2-0 overall. Snohomish 0-1, 1-1.