Some solid quarterbacks have cycled through Cascade High School since 2002, when Jake Huizinga became the Bruins’ head football coach.
But Huizinga never had anyone quite like Aaron Frye.
Frye, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior, had a promising season opener last week, leading Cascade’s offense in a 15-10 triumph at Oak Harbor. The versatile QB threw a 60-yard touchdown pass, completed a two-point conversion throw and had a 13-yard TD run.
“He was huge,” Huizinga said of Frye. “We’re looking at him as being another back out there for us.”
Frye started every game at quarterback last season when Cascade reached the Class 4A state playoffs. His confidence and talent level are high.
“He’s a great leader in the huddle. He’s got a great throwing arm,” Huizinga said. “He does an awesome job of play action and handing the ball off, and he’s an outstanding running back.”
Cascade still uses the well-known wing-T offense, but this season Huizinga added a few wrinkles to utilize Frye’s unique skills. The Bruins have a new shotgun formation that turns Frye into a multi-threat running back.
“They’re allowing me to use my arm and my legs more,” said Frye, who estimated that offseason workouts helped him cut his 40-yard dash time from 4.7 seconds to 4.5 seconds. He idolizes multi-dimensional QBs like Jake Locker and West Virginia’s Pat White.
Tonight Frye and his Cascade teammates face the great unknown in the form of the Kamiak Knights. It will be Cascade’s first game against a Western Conference South Division opponent since Cascade moved from the North to the South after last season.
“It’s definitely different,” said Frye, “because I’ve grown up with most of the teams from the Wesco North and I know most of the players. But (with Kamiak) I really don’t know what to expect. But I’m going to expect a lot.”
Kamiak, which lost to Snohomish 24-7 in its season opener, was picked to finish second in the South in The Herald’s preseason coaches’ poll; Cascade was picked third.
Switching to the South division is “a big unknown,” Huizinga said, “and it’s too bad we’ve got to play a pretty good team right away in Kamiak.”
Looking for a fullback: Unlike past seasons when guys like J.P. Oliver and Lorne Bridgford emerged as clear No. 1 fullbacks in Cascade’s run-focused offense, this fall the position is still up for grabs. Huizinga said three players are competing for the spot: senior Masih Ahmad, sophomore Justin Nejbauer and senior Bucky Dunkel.
“No one’s really emerged yet,” Huizinga said Wednesday.
Dunkel, originally the front-runner, has been out with hamstring problems. He didn’t play against Oak Harbor but should be ready for Kamiak, Huizinga said.
M-P’s fantastic fill-in: One of the best Week-1 football performances came from Marysville-Pilchcuck running back Austin Denton, who rushed for four TDs and more than 200 yards in a 46-14 win over Shorecrest. Denton, a 5-10, 200-pound junior, was a backup until two days before the game, when No. 1 fullback Colton Smith suffered a knee sprain.
“He stepped up big for us,” M-P head coach Brandon Carson said of Denton, who had scoring runs of 56, 49, 13 and 9 yards. “I didn’t expect him to run like he did. It was a pleasant surprise,” said Carson.
Denton should get more chances to show his ability. Smith might be out two more weeks, Carson said.
Meadowdale measures up: Meadowdale head football coach Mark Stewart said this about the significance of his team’s 28-27 triumph over Edmonds-Woodway last week: “We’ve been pretty good, and to beat your cross-town rivals is big. (E-W is) one of the top teams in the state (and) they’re our cross-town rival, and we’ve tried to measure ourselves against how well we do against them. That was a big accomplishment for our whole program.”
It was the Mavericks’ first win against Edmonds-Woodway since 2003. After defeating E-W 38-21 that year, Meadowdale lost four straight against the Warriors.
Monroe ends losing streak: Guided by first-year head coach Dave Telford, the Monroe football team beat Shorewood last week, stopping the Bearcats’ losing streak at 10. Last season Monroe was shu t out five times and lost all 10 of its games.
Beating Shorewood had extra meaning for Monroe: The Bearcats ended the 2007 season with a 17-14 loss to Shorewood. It was the closest Monroe came to winning all year, in terms of point differential.
Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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