Headed for a playoff

Published 11:36 pm Friday, October 21, 2011

SNOHOMISH — Three weeks ago the Snohomish Panthers were 0-5 and apparently going nowhere.

But over the past three weeks the Panthers have won three straight games, including Friday’s emphatic 34-16 victory over Arlington, to create a three-way tie for second place in the Western Conference N

orth football standings.

Snohomish, Arlington and Monroe will participate in a three-way playoff this afternoon at Monroe High School. Two of three teams will advance to the postseason next week while the third ends its season next week in a Wesco crossover game.

The Panthers still have work to do to reach the state playoffs, but even having a chance seemed farfetched three weeks ago.

At 0-5, said Snohomish coach Mark Perry, “the season would have been over for a lot of teams. But our kids believe in themselves. And our coaches did not change the way we practiced. We kept on them.

“I asked the team tonight (in the postgame locker room), ‘Did your coaches let up at 0-5? Did they start getting soft?’ And the answer was no, we didn’t. We’re competitive guys, too, and we weren’t going to stop coaching because we were 0-5. And the good thing is our kids didn’t stop playing because we were 0-5.”

The Panthers turned a tight game in the first half into a blowout in the second half by controlling the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense, and by getting a stellar game from junior running back Peter St. Marie, who battered Arlington’s defense for 229 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries.

In one remarkable stretch of the third and fourth quarters, St. Marie carried 18 straight times for the Panthers on three team possessions, with each one resulting in a touchdown.

“He had a (great) night,” said Perry, whose team is 3-5 overall, 3-2 in Wesco. “We didn’t come in planning to hand him the ball as many times as we did, but it was working. And if they weren’t going to stop it, we weren’t going to stop doing it.”

Both teams scored two first-half touchdowns, but the Eagles had a 16-14 lead on the strength of two two-point PATs. But after forcing a punt on Arlington’s initial possession of the second half, the Panthers scored three straight touchdowns — on St. Marie carries of 1, 3 and 2 yards — to take the game in hand.

Defensively, Snohomish put continuous pressure on Eagles quarterback Blake McPherson, who has shredded opposing secondaries most of this season. On a wet night that made passing and receiving difficult, McPherson completed just 12 of 32 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.

“Poor McPherson was running for his life a lot of the time,” Perry said. “We didn’t catch him every time, but he was running because somebody was chasing him.

“Our kids played tough,” he added. “They played hard all night, and they held a good offensive team to 14 points and no points in the second half.”

Arlington, meanwhile, was hampered by the absence of senior running back/wide receiver and defensive back Colton Hordyk, the team’s leading scorer and primary offensive weapon, who was academically ineligible. He will also be unable to play this afternoon.

Also doubtful for today’s playoff are two-way starters Adam Roehl (center and linebacker) and Bo Brummel (tight end and linebacker), who were both injured in the second half of Friday’s game.

“We just didn’t play very well,” said Arlington coach Greg Dailer, whose team dropped to 6-2 overall, 3-2 in league. “It seemed like every time we had a big play we had a penalty or we shot ourselves in the foot. And not having Hordyk out there obviously hurt.

“(Snohomish) had a good plan,” he said. “We’ve always had trouble when people run right at us. We just don’t have a lot of (big kids) up front. They have big hearts and play real hard, and when we create turnovers we play pretty well. But (the Panthers) did a nice job of running the ball right down our throats.”

At Snohomish H.S.

Arlington 0 16 0 0 — 16

Snohomish 6 8 13 7 — 34

Sno–St. Marie 29 run (kick failed)

Arl–Dawn 26 pass from McPherson (Brummel pass from McPherson)

Sno–McDonald 26 run (St. Marie run)

Arl–Davis 13 pass from McPherson (McPherson run)

Sno–St. Marie 1 run (pass failed)

Sno–St. Marie 3 run (Melander kick)

Sno–St. Marie 2 run (Melander kick)

Records–Arlington 3-2 league, 6-2 overall. Snohomish 3-5, 3-5.