Denton, M-P drive past Scots

Published 12:57 pm Thursday, September 9, 2010

SHORELINE

In a nonleague opener that served as something to build on for both teams, Marysville-Pilchuck engineered a 23-0 victory behind a strong performance by running back Austin Denton.

Denton rushed for 236 yards on 22 carries and scored the Tomahawks final touchdown on a 13-yard fourth quarter run. He had 16 carries for 158 yards at the half as the Tomahawks racked up 12 first downs by the break.

“Obviously they’re going to come right at you and wear you down that’s what they did all last year and that’s what they’re going to do this year with the fullback Denton,” Shorecrest head coach Mike Wollan said after the game.

Marysville-Pilchuck finished with 368 total yards rushing. Shorecrest only suited up 27 players and was held to 92 yards of total offense. Fullback David Cannon rushed for 37 yards on five carries to lead the Scots while the Tomahawk defense keyed on tailback Jordan Brown and held him to 32 yards on 15 carries.

Both teams got off to a sloppy start, committing turnovers on their opening drives. The Tomahawks’ Dane Widness intercepted one of Shorecrest’s new quarterbacks Ted Hammond and Scots’ linebacker Jack Bergthold recovered a fumble by M-P quarterback Zack Hanson on a missed exchange near the goal line.

M-P settled down in the second quarter and embarked on a nine-play, 74-yard drive capped a 1-yard plunge by Hansen. Danny Stokes missed the extra point but tacked on a 27-yard field goal with 50 seconds left in the half to give the Tomahawks a 9-0 lead at the midpoint.

Shorecrest recovered its own kickoff to begin the third quarter but the drive stalled and Maoulay Adjorlolo’s punt was downed at the M-P 2-yard line.

Poor field position proved to be no problem for the Tomahawks who drove 98 yards in 10 plays. Jarret Finau caught a pass down the left side of the field for a 36-yard touchdown with 5:50 left in the quarter leaving Scots in a deep hole.

Denton tacked on some insurance with a 13-yard run on third-and-nine with 11:46 to play.

“We didn’t play as well as we should have lots of mistakes. We had a lot of first-time varsity starters so we got a lot to get cleaned up by next week,” said Marysville-Pilchuck head coach Brandon Carson, whose team plays at league foe Snohomish, Friday, Sept. 11. “I thought our effort was fine we just got to do a better effort getting a surge.”

The Scots contended well with the 4A Tomahawks’ offense especially in the first half.

“They play really hard,” Carson said. “They give us a little trouble up front they cut, they slant and they stunt. They do those things and those linebackers are pretty good. No. 4 (Brown, the free safety) is a really good player.”

Said Brown: “You got those backs running at you full speed. It’s fun.”

Shorecrest made mistakes, but the team did some good things as well and had its chances early, Wollan said.

“But we had a chance in the first half to make some plays we had some dropped balls. I think we had three drops in the first half alone that were in some big situations,” said Wollan, who played quarterback in high school. “They all would have been for first downs maybe could have got some momentum and confidence with the new quarterbacks, which was kind of what we were looking for.”

Suiting up only 27 eligible players against Marysville-Pilchuck made an impact.

“We had a lot of depth sitting on the sideline. We got to try to survive these first three weeks and then we’ll get some guys back. We’ll get some guys back, we’ll actually get some guys back next week,” Wollan said.

Up next for Shorecrest is Ferndale at 7 p.m. Friday at Shoreline Stadium.

“We know we’re going to bust our butts in practice next week, we know that for sure we got to step it up to the next level,” Brown said. “They’re beatable. They lost a lot of guys but they have a good program so we’ll see what happens.

“We learned a lot tonight,” Cannon said.