ATM’s Martinez too much for Tigers

Published 6:28 pm Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Granite Falls Tigers football team may have controlled the time of possession battle against Archbishop Murphy, but they didn’t have Alexander Martinez.

Archbishop Murphy’s Martinez racked up 199 yards rushing on just 10 carries helping the Wildcats to the 30-17 Cascade Conference win Sept. 18 at Granite Falls High School.

Martinez broke runs of 17 yards and 65 yards, both for touchdowns.

“We were pretty effective offensively,” Wildcats coach Dave Ward said.

Archbishop Murphy outscored Granite Falls 16-3 in the first half, but the Tigers played the Wildcats even in the second half, each team scoring 14 points.

“They didn’t finish a couple of drives in the first half, our defense stiffened,” Ward said.

“Granite seems to be a better team this year,” Ward added.

Granite Falls’ strategy of controlling the clock helped its cause, but Archbishop Murphy’s high-powered offense proved too much for the Tigers.

“It gave us fewer snaps,” Ward said. “It was a good strategy.”

Ward said that long kick returns by Martinez and Jake Clark proved to be two of the bigger plays in the game setting up touchdown drives.

Clark also played well at receiver, catching a touchdown pass from quarterback Austin VanderWel.

“Jake had a nice game, he caught a touchdown pass, showed good hands,” Ward said.

Archbishop Murphy rebounded from a disappointing 20-14 loss to Eastside Catholic a week earlier, doing it with four starters injured and unable to play.

We were playing some new kids this week and it was nice to see them step up,” Ward said. “I was pleased with the effort under those circumstances.”

Ward said the Wildcats still need to improve on their tackling and catching the football.

“We had one drive end on an incomplete pass in the end zone that should have been a touchdown,” Ward said.

Archbishop Murphy’s Jake Hines intercepted a Granite Falls’ pass late in the fourth quarter that essentially ended the game; the Wildcats ran the clock out from there.

The Wildcats take on Sultan this Friday in Cascade Conference action.

“I think we just want to keep improving fundamentally and tackle well,” Ward said.