Arlington holds off Stanwood to keep Stilly Cup

By KEVIN BREIWICK

Herald Writer

STANWOOD – Arlington’s Nick Yoney made up for a first half of missed opportunities with one play in the second half of the annual Stilly Cup high school football game between Arlington and Stanwood.

Yoney caught the opening kickoff of the second half and sprinted 100 yards for what would be the go-ahead touchdown as Arlington defeated Stanwood 14-7 Friday in a Western Conference 3A contest.

With no playoff implications, Friday’s game was a matter of pride and Arlington (6-1 in league, 8-1 overall) will take home bragging rights for a year.

The Eagles, the Wesco 3A runnerup, will play Mount Vernon, the Northwest League runnerup, in a district playoff on Tuesday.

“We’ve worked on it (special teams) a lot,” Arlington coach John Boitano said.” These guys (Stanwood) are a lot better than their record shows. You can’t walk into this game, they’ll knock your head off.”

Stanwood finished the season at 3-4, 4-5.

After a scoreless first quarter, Arlington struck first. Yoney caught a 35-yard pass from Kevin McCormack to set up a first-and-goal. Two plays later, running back John Hammer scored on a 5-yard run.

That’s all the Eagles’ usually potent offense could muster in the half. Stanwood held the Eagles to 119 yards in the half. Tyler Breum deflated Arlington’s passing attack in the frist half, intercetping McCormack twice.

Arlington returned the favor and held Stanwood to 76 yards of total offense.

But Yoney turned the game around with his kickoff return.

Stanwood finished with 210 yards of offense, while Arlington bettered the Spartans with 216.

The Eagles couldn’t handle the majority of McCormack’s passes in the third quarter. When the Eagles’ recievers did get a handle on McCormack’s passes, the completions were nullified by penalty calls.

“Penalites just take you out of synchronization,” Boitano said. “Penalties was just a killer.”

In the early minutes of the fourth quarter, Arlington was faced with a fourth-and-23. McCormack’s pass was caught for a 35-yard gain, but an offensive pass interferance call gave Stanwood the ball back.

Soon after, Stanwood would make the game closer than the Eagles would have liked.

On the ensuing drive, Stanwood pounded inside the 20 for the first time in the game, led by running back Julian Bomar. Bomar finished the drive off with a 6-yard touchdown run with 8:05 left in the fourth quarter.

Bomar finished the game with 124 yards on 30 carries.

Yoney returned the Spartan kickoff 52 yards, and McCormack would lead the Eagles inside the 20. But Breum would make McCormack pay once again, intercepting the quarterback in the end zone.

McCormack finished the game 15-for-18 passing with three interceptions, all by Breum.

Stanwood drove to the Arlington 16 with close to a minute remaining. On frouth-and-10 Breum would come through with a 13-yard pass to Ed Avila with 30 seconds left.

But a penalty led to a second-and-25. After an incomplte pass, Breum was picked off by Hammer in the end zone, which ended Stanwood’s threat.

To say John Boitano was nervous about possibly losing is an understatement.

“I was already crying about going 7-2,” he said.