EDMONDS — Meadowdale head football coach Matt Leonard stresses the importance of winning the turnover battle.
The Mavericks did just that before a packed Edmonds Stadium Friday night as they forced two Edmonds-Woodway fumbles and recorded two interceptions to knock off the Warriors 31-14 and lay claim to the Wesco 3A South regular-season title.
“That’s the difference in the game for sure,” Leonard said, his hair dripping wet from a post-game water-bucket shower. “They had some opportunities to make the game closer on us and we were able to take care of the football and turn them away.
“There’s nothing better than playing them on the field that they call theirs and winning this game.”
The win was the seventh straight for the Mavericks (6-0 Wesco, 7-1 overall) and earns them the 3A South’s top seed heading into the postseason. Edmonds-Woodway slipped to 5-1 and 5-3 overall.
Jashon Butler had a receiving touchdown, a rushing touchdown and recorded both Meadowdale interceptions in his fourth game back since he suffered an injury in Meadowdale’s season-opening loss to Class 4A Monroe. He finished with 50 rushing yards on a dozen carries.
“(Getting Butler back) is a shot in the arm,” Leonard said. “That set we showed today — we haven’t run it, but it’s been in the playbook and we’ve been waiting. We thought it would give them some problems and it did.”
Quarterback Drew Tingstad threw for 206 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for two scores while Kela Marshall finished with 150 yards on 21 carries.
“We got me (with) the speed and Kel and Drew with the power, and I don’t think any team can stop it,” Butler said. “Us three together, we can power through everything.”
Meadowdale built a 17-7 lead at the half, but Edmonds-Woodway opened the third quarter by going 61 yards on nine plays as Kameron Krall found Jaro Rouse for a 36-yard touchdown pass at 9:41 to cut the deficit to 17-14.
Tingstad engineered a 10-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that he finished with a 21-yard scamper up the middle at 6:05 to push the lead to 24-14.
Then the Mavericks defense took over as it forced a pair of Edmonds-Woodway fumbles deep in Meadowdale territory to thwart the Warriors’ next two drives.
Butler’s second interception came at 4:32 in the fourth, and he put the game away with a 2-yard touchdown at 1:44 to make it 31-14.
“We didn’t think they could sustain it down the field on us as long as we played our game and didn’t turn the football over,” Leonard said. “Other than the Monroe game and some weird plays in a couple other games we’ve shut everybody down. We felt like that was the game plan. Take care of the ball on offense, run the ball and shut them down on defense.”
Following a scoreless opening quarter, Tingstad capped a 10-play, 67-yard drive with a 5-yard rushing touchdown to give the Mavericks a 7-0 lead at 9:18 in the second.
After the Warriors turned the ball over on downs, the Mavericks went 75 yards in seven plays and used a 9-yard pass from Tingstad to Butler to push the lead to 14-0 at 3:16.
“The only reason we can have those weapons and utilize them is because of our big hogs up front,” Tingstad said. “We’ve got to give it to them — Bryce Chapman and Brendan Diaz — they’re our senior captains on the O-line and they just did a great job tonight and really anchored us down.”
But the Warriors responded as Krall found Rouse behind the Mavericks defense for a 54-yard scoring toss to cut Meadowdale’s lead to 14-7 at 1:45.
Will Schafer put the Mavericks back up two scores with a 37-yard field goal with 40 seconds to go and Meadowdale took a 17-7 lead into the half after Butler intercepted a Krall pass as time expired.
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