PREP FOOTBALL/SWIMMING ROUNDUP: Halfback pass for touchdown sparks Sultan win

Published 12:01 am Saturday, November 7, 2009

Sultan coach Michael McMahon decided to throw out the typical game plan and spice up the play calling about 10 minutes before the Turks’ final game of the season.

Its a good thing he did.

On the first play from scrimmage, Thomas McGrath took the handoff from Zach Beebe with the S

ehome defense swarming to the ball, and McGrath found Clayton Knoles open on a halfback pass, turning it into a 56-yard touchdown reception to spark Sultan to a 26-19 non-conference victory Friday at Bellingham Civic Stadium.

“I was just wanting to jump out early on them,” McMahon said. “We knew we have had a long season, and they have had a long season … I just decided to do it (halfback pass) about 10 minutes before the game. It was totally unscripted. I knew Thomas could throw the ball real well.”

With the win, Sultan improved to 3-7 overall, Sehome fell to 0-10.

McMahon had nothing but praise for his senior class, which had a stellar performance on both sides of the ball.

Knoles caught two touchdowns — putting himself over 1,000 yards receiving and giving him 13 touchdown receptions — and quarterback Zach Beebe threw for a touchdown.

“At any level, that is a big number to reach,” McMahon said of Knoles. “He is a kid that deserved it, he worked so hard and reached one of his personal goals.”

After breaking his ankle early in the season, senior Owen Myles was back on the field and returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown. Also, seniors Bobby Alwood and Tanner Rutz each recorded a sack.

“Its so nice to see the seniors go out on a winning note,” McMahon proudly said of his seniors. “Its nice to see a person like Owen Myles, he just wanted to play so bad, it was so neat to see him pick off that pass and take it to the house. Its great to see someone who put in the hard work like he did.

“It was just a great way to finish the season for those guys.”

At Bellingham Civic Stadium

Sultan 12 8 0 6 — 26

Sehome 0 6 7 6 — 19

Sultan—Knoles 56 pass from McGrath (pass failed)

Sultan—Jake Beebe 2 run (run failed)

Sehome—Tumber 15 run (kick failed)

Sultan—Myles 82 interception return (Zach Beebe run)

Sehome—15 run (kick good)

Sehome—Tumber 22 run (kick failed)

Sultan—Knoles 14 pass from Zach Beebe (kick failed)

Records—Sultan 3-7 overall. Sehome 0-10.

Bellingham 29, Lakewood 12: At Marysville, despite touchdowns by Nathan Hesselman and Christian Melton in the fourth quarter, Lakewood fell to Bellingham in the non-conference game. Hesselman had two catches for 72 yards and Melton had 15 carries for 56 yards.

At Cardinal Stadium

Bellingham 14 7 8 0 — 29

Lakewood 0 0 0 12 — 12

Bellingham—player not reported 77 run (kick good)

Bellingham—player not reported 15 reception (kick good)

Bellingham—player not reported 48 reception (kick good)

Bellingham—player not reported 14 run (2-point conversion good)

Lakewood—Hesselman 70 pass from Bean (kick failed)

Lakewood—Melton 7 run (pass failed)

Records—Bellingham 2-8 overall. Lakewood 3-7.

Burlington-Edison 45, South Whidbey 0: At Burlington, South Whidbey lost five fumbles, including one on each of its first two drives in the 2A District 1 winner-to-state, loser-out playoff game. “You can’t turn it over that many times and expect to do well,” South Whidbey co-coach Andy Davis said. “Their nose guard was really a force.” “We came in ready to go,” Tigers nose tackle Jack Nevitt said. “We were well prepared for this one.” The Tigers have outscored their opponents 192-17 in the district playoffs over the past five years. When the Falcons were able to get the ball to running back Henry Mead, who was well over 1,000 yards on the season, the Tigers had him bottled up as well. Against the Tiger first-string defense, he had just 18 yards on 18 carries. He finished with 52 yards on 24 tries.

At Burlington-Edison H.S.

S. Whidbey 0 0 0 0 — 0

B-E 21 14 7 3 — 45

BE — Larson 20 run (Furney kick)

BE — Sanchez 3 run (Furney kick)

BE — Acoba 5 run (Furney kick)

BE — Hayton 18 incerception return (Furney kick)

BE — Agen 3 run (Furney kick)

BE — Acoba 14 run (Furney kick)

BE — FG Furney 43

Records—South Whidbey 5-5 overall. Burlington-Edison 8-2.

Blaine 28, Cedarcrest 0: At Duvall, Blaine earned a state playoff berth and ended Cedarcrest’s season with the 2A District 1 win.

Auburn 42, Kamiak 7: At Auburn, Despite missing a key piece to its rushing attack, third-ranked Auburn didn’t miss a beat in piling up 482 yards of total offense at Auburn Memorial Stadium in a Class 4A Quad-district playoff game. The Trojans were without star running back and University of Washington recruit Chris Young, who was suspended for the remainder of the season earlier in the week for a violation of team rules. Halfbacks Austin Embody (21 carries, 221 yards, 4 TDs) and Alphonse Wade (14 carries, 145 yards, 3 TDs) did more than enough to pick up the slack for Young. The two combined for 366 rushing yards and all six of the Auburn touchdowns. Kamiak (4-6) could muster just 70 yards of total offense against the Auburn defense in the first half.

At Auburn Memorial Stadium

Kamiak 0 7 0 0 — 0

Auburn 21 7 7 7 — 42

A—Embody 61 run (McMahon kick)

A—Embody 24 run (McMahon kick)

A—Wade 43 run (McMahon kick)

K—Sortor 10 run (Watts kick)

A—Embody 6 run (McMahon kick)

A—Embody 7 run (McMahon kick)

A—Wade 6 run (McMahon kick)

Records—Kamiak 4-6 overall. Auburn 10-0.

Crescent 76, Highland Christian 26: At Arlington, Crescent led 56-20 at halftime, and kept up the offensive pressure in the second half for the Pacific Coast League win. Crescent is now 3-2 in leauge, 7-1 overall. Highland is 2-3, 2-6.

Girls swimming

4A District 1 diving: At Marysville, Sarah Clark and Marysa Eastman of Marysville-Pilchuck and Fiona Weeks of Kamiak qualified for next week’s 4A state meet during Friday’s District 1 competition at Marysville-Pilchuck H.S. Clark finished first with 399.70 points, followed by Weeks with 376.20 and Eastman with 365.25.

3A District 1 prelims: At Anacortes, Melissa Randolf of Glacier Peak qualified first in two events, swimming Class 3A state meet qualifying times in both races. Randolf swam the 50-yard freestyle in 25.16 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 1:00.09. She also swam the anchor leg for the first-place 200 freestyle relay squad. Shorecrest’s Allyson Kim also qualified first in two events, the 200 and 500 freestyle races. The meet concludes today. The top two finishers in each race qualify for next week’s state meet.

At Fidalgo Pool

Wesco finalists

200 medley relay—2. Shorecrest (Alexa Peters, Claire Wickstrom, Sarah Semon, Laura Millet) 2:01.27; 4. Meadowdale (Kina Ackerman, Chelsea Northup, Marilee Clobes, Baylee Northup) 2:10.77; 6. Lynnwood (Sara Dickinson, Taylor Simon, Stella Champion, Jessica Thornberry) 2:28.77; 7. Everett (Veronica Onyszko, Adriana Aroche, Jeanne Magbag, Emily Chesterfield) 2:32.72.

200 freestyle—1. Allyson Kim (Shorecrest) 2:01.91; 2. Angie Bonato (Shorecrest) 2:05.19; 3. Autumn Wunderlich (Glacier Peak) 2:06.62; 5. Cara Prange (Glacier Peak) 2:09.26; 6. Courtney Langer (Glacier Peak) 2:10.94.

200 individual medley—1. Katlyn Christenson (Glacier Peak) 2:15.94*; 2. Kina Ackerman (Meadowdale) 2:20.84; 4. Courtney Cheng (Glacier Peak) 2:26.28; 5. Sarah Semon (Shorecrest) 2:28.38; 6. Amy Glaskova (Shorecrest) 2:35.29; 7. Elayne Wilson (Everett) 2:39.53; 8. Emily Lathrop (Glacier Peak) 2:41.67.

50 freestyle—1. Melissa Randolf (Glacier Peak) 25.16*; tie 4. Claire Wickstrom (Shorecrest) 27.72; 6. Jasmine Douglas (Everett) 27.76; 7. Alexa Peters (Shorecrest) 27.77; 8. Amy Ruiz (Glacier Peak) 27.86.

100 butterfly—1. Melissa Randolf (Glacier Peak) 1:00.09*; 2. Laura Millet (Shorecrest) 1:01.66*; 3. Sarah Semon (Shorecrest) 1:05.83; 5. Elayne Wilson (Everett) 1:11.74; 6. Chelsea Northup (Meadowdale) 1:13.77; 7. Geneva Olson (Shorecrest) 1:14.15; 8. Felicia Froton (Glacier Peak) 1:14.46.

100 freestyle—tie 2. Cara Prange (Glacier Peak) 59.05; 4. Katlyn Whittum (Lynnwood) 1:00.87; 5. Amanda Muchmore (Glacier Peak) 1:01.51; 6. Amy Ruiz (Glacier Peak) 1:01.51; 8. Brittney Hahn (Shorecrest) 1:03.37.

500 freestyle—1. Allyson Kim (Shorecrest) 5:24.04*; 2. Angie Bonato (Shorecrest) 5:31.41; 3. Kina Ackerman (Meadowdale) 5:34.39; 4. Courtney Langer (Glacier Peak) 5:48.39; 8. Baylee Northup (Glacier Peak) 6:20.81.

200 freestyle relay—1. Glacier Peak (Katlyn Christenson, Cara Prange, Amy Ruiz, Melissa Randolf) 1:46.87; 3. Shorecrest (Claire Wickstrom, Alexa Peters, Brittney Hahn, Karin Kawauchi) 1:48.59; 5. Everett (Jasmine Douglas, Rochelle Rhone, Emily Chesterfield, Rainier Cramer) 2:00.47; 7. Lynnwood (Jessica Thornberry, Cassie Knierim, Rhandi Harwood, Katlynn Whittum) 2:07.30; 8. Meadowdale (Parisa Sangadi, Maddie Barrow, Veronica Diaz, Devon Harris) 2:14.83.

100 backstroke—1. Autumn Wunderlich (Glacier Peak) 1:04.04*; 2. Laura Millet (Shorecrest) 1:04.27; 3. Courtney Cheng (Glacier Peak) 1:08.95; 4. Alexa Peters (Shorecrest) 1:08.99; 8. Joana Carroll (Glacier Peak) 1:17.09.

100 breaststroke—1. Katlyn Christenson (Glacier Peak) 1:11.12*; 4. Claire Wickstrom (Shorecrest) 1:16.64; 6. Amy Glaskova (Shorecrest) 1:18.17.

400 freestyle relay—2. Glacier Peak (Cara Prange, Amanda Muchmore, Courtney Langer, Autumn Wunderlich) 4:03.33; 3. Shorecrest (Angie Bonato, Geneva Olson, Allyson Kim, Laura Millet) 4:11.35; 4. Meadowdale (Baylee Northup, Chelsea Northup, Marilee Clobes, Kina Ackerman) 4:16.51; 6. Everett (Elayne Wilson, Rainier Cramer, Rochelle Rhone, Jasmine Douglas) 4:27.70; 8. Lynnwood (Rhandi Harwood, Sara Dickinson, Stella Champion, Cassie Knierim) 5:08.10.

*Class 3A state meet qualifying time.