Archbishop Murphy starts slow, then rolls over 3A power Kennedy

BURIEN — It didn’t look good for Archbishop Murphy in the early going of the Wildcats’ nonleague clash Thursday with Kennedy, a 3A Seamount League team ranked No. 7 in the state by the Tacoma News Tribune.

Murphy, ranked No. 2 in the TNT’s Class 2A poll and the Cascade Conference favorite, had negative rushing yards on nine attempts from 2010 all-state running back Alex Galgano, who rushed for 209 on the Lancers a year ago. Murphy had one completed pass — for negative yards — on seven attempts from quarterback Conner Kruse. A botched punt attempt deep in the Wildcats own end, all but handed Kennedy a 7-0 lead.

The Wildcats’ defense was stiff and broke onto the scoreboard with a safety, but coach Dave Ward credited junior Hans VanderWel’s touchdown, part of 35 unanswered points, as the spark that propelled the team to an impressive 41-14 victory at Highline Memorial Stadium.

“He just had a great desire to get in the end zone and I think our backs started running harder after that and they all started to want to get that extra yard,” Ward said. “At the beginning of the game I didn’t think we were running as hard as we could, so we developed as the game went on and got stronger. Hans set the tone on our first touchdown.”

After trailing 7-2 at the end of one quarter, the VanderWel’s 18-yard shovel pass from Kruse early in the second quarter gave Murphy a lead it would never relinquish.

Later in the quarter defensive back Ricky Gordon scooped the first of his two fumble-return touchdowns to give Murphy a 15-7 halftime edge. Gordon’s score on a punt return seemed miraculous until the Wildcats (2-0 overall) continued to make crazy plays on defense and special teams that broke the hearts of Kennedy (1-1), which will likely drop from the 3A rankings with the defeat.

“The way the turnovers went, the safety and taking advantage of opportunities it was (odd) but the same thing happened last week, so I really think it’s going to be a trait of this defense,” Ward said. “We are trying to put athletes, starters on special teams so that good things will happen on punt return and kickoff and so on.”

Gordon who is a starter on defense and had two carries for 52 yards as a running back was just down field blocking for both of his touchdowns. The second came when teammate Morgan Masanda couldn’t scoop up a fumble that bounced closer and closer to the end zone.

“I was trying to block for my teammate Morgan and he couldn’t pick it up, so I just picked it up and ran with it,” Gordon said. “Things just went right tonight.”

Unofficially The Wildcats defense held the Lancers under 50 yards total offense and University of Washington recruit and Lancer quarterback Jason Thompson completed just 4-of 13 passes for 20 yards with two interceptions. Thompson did return a fumble 60 yards for Kennedy’s only points in the second half.

Going into the game Ward was concerned about Kennedy’s size advantage on the line of scrimmage, but as the game progressed the bigger Lancers wilted in the hot September night.

“There big guys are carrying a lot of weight and got a little tired,” Ward said. When you have smaller lineman as the game wears on you can go into the fourth quarter and still be strong.”

Murphy was strong in the fourth quarter and Galgano finally broke into the end zone late to cap a 16-carry 44-yard performance that included at 13-yard loss as punter when he put his knee down on a bad snap.

Ward was very happy with the results against a strong team, for the second consecutive year after winning 45-28 in 2010.

“To be able to (come from behind) on the road against a 3A school tells us that we are hopefully going to be able to do that in the playoffs, if we work hard every week and continue to improve,” Ward said. “If we rest on our laurels tonight then we will have wasted this opportunity.

“If we take it from this stage and improve it’s exciting to see what we can be.”

At Highline Stadium

Murphy 2 13 20 6 — 41

Kennedy 7 0 7 0 — 14

K — Prescott 5 run (Cossette kick)

A — Safety (Intentional grounding in endzone)

A — H. VanderWel 18 pass from Kruse (kick blocked)

A — Gordon 25 fumble return (Wade kick)

A — Tevaga 9 run (kick failed)

A — Guy 75 pass from Kruse (Wade kick)

A — Gordon 10 fumble return (Wade kick)

K — Thompson 60 fumble return (Cossette kick)