M-P stays undefeated by downing Arlington

Published 11:54 pm Friday, October 3, 2008

MARYSVILLE — Things didn’t exactly get off to a perfect start for Marysville-Pilchuck during the celebration of its 100th prep football season Friday night.

But after Arlington scored a touchdown on its first possession, Andy Abadam ran back the kickoff for an 88-yard touchdown and M-P went on to score 30 unanswered points en route to a 37-15 win over Arlington at Quil Ceda Stadium.

“That’s an obvious momentum builder,” M-P head coach Brandon Carson said. “That got us right back in the game immediately. That was a great return by Andy.”

With players representing eight decades of Marysville football watching, the Tomahawks rode the momentum of that kickoff return to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 2004.

Austin Denton rushed 26 times for 208 yards and two touchdowns for M-P. It was Denton’s third game with 200 or more rushing yards this season. Caleb Posey added 163 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns, and Ryan Sterley collected 70 yards on 10 carries.

“We did a pretty good job up front and I liked the way our halfbacks blocked for Austin,” Carson said. “Posey ran the ball well, Sterley ran the ball well and obviously Austin did what Austin does.”

Arlington’s first drive made it appear the Eagles would give M-P a tough contest Friday.

Jake Parduhn hit Conner Varnell on a fade route in the right end zone for the Eagles’ first touchdown. The scoring pass capped an 11-play, 73-yard drive to open the contest.

But Abadam’s kickoff return opened the M-P floodgates and Denton’s first touchdown of the evening capped a six-play, 64-yard scoring drive to make it 12-7 with 3:43 left in the opening quarter.

“Talk about taking the wind out of our sails,” Arlington coach Greg Dailer said. “It definitely affects the momentum of the game. When you get on top you want to stay on top, and that’s something we were able to do the first couple of weeks.”

Arlington has lost two straight after opening the season 3-0.

Posey capped a 5-play, 38-yard drive with a 4-yard scoring run to make it 18-7 and Levi Cartas out jumped a defender to haul in the two-point conversion pass from Devin Peterson to give the Tomahawks a 20-7 lead that they took into halftime.

Posey added another touchdown — on a 5-yard run with 9:18 to go — and Denton put an exclamation point on his evening with a 1-yard touchdown run with 3:58 remaining.

Parduhn added a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jon Shell between the two Tomahawks touchdowns, but the lead M-P had built proved insurmountable.

Dailer recognized that other teams have been working to contain the dual-threat Parduhn at quarterback, something Arlington’s sparse roster of 29 players has struggled to overcome in recent weeks

“People are adjusting well to (Parduhn), but I think we finally found a back tonight that can take some of that pressure off,” he said, referring to Eagles running back Kellen Botten, who finished with 71 yards on 12 carries. “With that balance I don’t think they’ll be able to key on Jake as much.”

At Quil Ceda Stadium

Arlington7008—15

M-P128314—37

Arl—Varnell 4 pass from Parduhn (Pierce kick)

MP—Abadam 88 kickoff return (kick failed)

MP—Denton 2 run (kick failed)

MP—Posey 4 run (Cartas pass from Peterson)

MP—Stokes 36 field goal

MP—Posey 6 run (Stokes kick)

Arl—Shell 10 pass from Parduhn (Lindberg pass from Parduhn)

MP—Denton 1 run (Stokes kick)

Records—Arlington 0-2 league, 3-2 overall. M-P 3-0, 5-0.