Marysville-Pilchuck rains down touchdowns on Monroe

MONROE — The heavy downpour throughout the second quarter wasn’t the first deluge to strike Monroe High School’s football field Friday night.

Marysville-Pilchuck’s undefeated football team delivered some torrential scoring from the first possession of the game in a 56-13 Western Conference North victory.

The victory, combined with Oak Harbor’s victory over Lake Stevens, clinched the division championship for Marysville-Pilchuck. The Tomahawks, who will host Oak Harbor in their final regular-season game next Friday, are 5-0 in the division and 8-0 overall.

It also secured a return to the postseason for Marysville-Pilchuck, which will play the South Puget Sound League’s fourth-place finisher in the first round next month.

“That’s huge because our kids want to get back in there and show what we can do,” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Brandon Carson said. “Some of them who returned this year were disappointed the way it ended last year against Issaquah.”

Senior running back Austin Denton scored five touchdowns and rushed for 203 yards for Marysville-Pilchuck, pushing him past the 1,500-yard mark for the season with 1,596.

He didn’t play the entire first quarter and was gone after three plays into the third.

“He’s pretty gifted,” Carson said. “But his neck has been banged up and he didn’t practice as much as I would have liked this week, so I gave reps to the guy who practiced all week.”

Senior A.J. Kvangnes got much of the work in the first quarter when Marysville-Pilchuck launched into its big lead. He finished with 48 yards on 10 carries — all in the first half — that included a 5-yard touchdown run.

The Tomahawks controlled Friday night’s game literally from the opening kickoff, when they recovered their own pooch kick and scored five plays later on junior Tyler Thompson’s 8-yard run. Danny Stokes kicked the first of his seven extra points for a 7-0 lead.

Less than six minutes later, it was 21-0 and building.

Kvangnes scored on a 5-yard run and, nine seconds later, junior linebacker Suli Tamaivena intercepted a pass and ran it back 35 yards for a touchdown.

Denton entered the game in the second quarter when the rout, along with the rain, was at its heaviest.

He scored on a 3-yard run with 9:41 remaining in the second quarter for a 28-0 lead and scored on another 3-yard run less than three minutes later.

The next time he touched the football, Monroe didn’t.

Denton ran 65 yards for his third touchdown and a 42-0 lead with 3:17 to go until halftime. His 10-yard touchdown run with 21 seconds remaining made the score 49-0 at the half.

Carson played his starters in the second half for one series, and it lasted three plays. Denton broke free up the middle and cut to the sideline on a 67-yard touchdown run, and Blake McGrew’s extra point made the score 56-0.

Overwhelmed early, Monroe coach David Telford urged his players at halftime to play hard the rest of the game despite the score.

“I realize they were playing younger kids by then, but the thing I liked was that our tempo of play picked up,” Telford said. “The purpose of getting to the football defensively and the purpose of blocking and running the football with good pad level picked up. That was a bonus for us.”

Monroe crossed into Marysville-Pilchuck territory for the first time in the game with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter and scored two plays into the fourth quarter on quarterback Joey Roppo’s 35-yard pass to Cody Elledge.

Those two hooked up again on Monroe’s next series on 13-yard swing pass-and-run with 4:15 remaining in the game.

“If there is a silver lining you can get in a loss, it’s that we did play hard for the last 24 minutes,” Telford said. “We talked about that at halftime, that we wanted to come out and show people what we’re really about and what’s inside our chest.”

At Monroe H.S.

M-P212870—56

Monroe00013—13

MP—Thompson 8 run (Stokes kick)

MP—Kvangnes 5 run (Stokes kick)

MP—Suli Tamaivena 35 interception runback (Stokes kick)

MP—Denton 3 run (Stokes kick)

MP—Denton 3 run (Stokes kick

MP—Denton 65 run (Stokes kick)

MP—Denton 10 run (Stokes kick)

MP—Denton 67 run (McGrew kick)

Monroe—Elledge 35 pass from Roppo (Run failed)