Mavs win Wesco 3A football title

Published 7:46 pm Tuesday, November 1, 2011

EDMONDS — Meadowdale was headed into uncharted territory.

Eight times this season the Mavericks led at halftime. But in game nine, Meadowdale coach Mark Stewart and his players looked up at the scoreboard to see Oak Harbor leading 17-14.

Senior linebacker/running back Kyle Newsom told his teammates to keep their heads up.

“Don’t lose the composure,” he said. “We’re going to go out and give them a whooping. You’ve got to believe in each other and trust in each other.”

The Mavericks took Newsom’s exhortations to heart in the second half, scoring 20 unanswered points and shutting out the Wildcats en route to a 34-17 victory in the Western Conference 3A football championship game Oct. 27 at Edmonds Stadium.

Oak Harbor seemed to seize the momentum heading into halftime when quarterback Ian Kolste threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Michael Washington with four seconds left in the second quarter.

Stewart urged the Mavericks to respond in the second half.

“You have to come out and play four quarters,” Stewart said. “We just talked about coming out and playing hard in the second half and on some level enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that there is competition and I think we did. We kind of came out and continued to execute and continue to battle and get it done.”

Junior quarterback Brian Marty threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Kyler Larsen at the 5:13 mark of the third quarter as Meadowdale retook the lead (21-17) for good.

“We didn’t get down on ourselves,” Marty said. “We knew we could come back and win the game. … We came out and performed.”

The Mavericks didn’t really make any major adjustments on defense, according to Stewart. It may have taken the first half for Meadowdale to get used to the speed of Oak Harbor running back Josiah Miller.

“It’s one thing to talk about how fast he is. It’s another to really see it,” Stewart said. “In the second half, the adjustment is just to make sure people are in the gaps doing the things they need to do and tackle when they have to. They put a lot of stress on you. … Our guys tackle well. We got it done in the second half.”

Senior Corwin Perkins made a key defensive play late in the third quarter when he tackled Miller, who took off on a fake punt, a play the Mavericks were expecting Oak Harbor to run at some point in the game.

Newsom, who ran for four touchdowns (12, 5, 1 and 12 yards) credited the play of the linemen for bottling up the Oak Harbor ground game.

“They all did amazing,” Newsom said. “Everyone did their job well in the second half.”

Meadowdale improved to 8-0 in the league and 9-0 overall. The league title was a goal when the players and coaches started preseason practices in mid-August.

“It feels great,” Newsom said of going undefeated in the regular season. “Our number one goal was to be Wesco champs and just work our way to the Tacoma Dome.”

The Mavericks take that first step on Nov. 5. Meadowdale hosts Prairie at 7 p.m. in a quad-district playoff game at Edmonds Stadium.

The accomplishments of the Mavericks during the regular season, however, won’t soon be forgotten. Stewart thought Meadowdale had potential to be a good football team.

“We knew we had a pretty good shot at going undefeated,” he said. “A lot of it came down to this game. … To come out in this game and get that done is pretty satisfying. It’s satisfying to our team and everybody who’s been involved in program.”