Mount Vernon beats Stanwood, earns playoff berth

By Morris Malakoff

Herald Writer

MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Bulldogs did the only thing they could do to stay in contention for postseason play – win.

They beat the Stanwood Spartans 24-13 in the final game of the Western Conference North regular season. And the victory paid off in the division’s third playoff berth when Snohomish lost to Cascade.

Mount Vernon will play South champion Kamiak in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Goddard Stadium.

While making the postseason was the primary goal of the Bulldogs, head coach Paul Christianson felt the win and the Bulldog home season sent a message to the rest of the Western Conference.

“I told the players before the game ‘no one beats the dog in our house,’” said Christianson referring to the Bulldogs. “The only thing we could control going into tonight was closing out our second consecutive undefeated home season, especially in our first year in Wesco.”

For a short time early in the game it appeared that the game would come down to which team scored last.

Mount Vernon opened the scoring when quarterback Kyle Kendrick connected with Victor Carrillo on a 21-yard scoring pass 4 1/2 minutes into the game.

Stanwood struck back on the next play from scrimmage as quarterback Jake Heringstad tossed a lateral to Julian Bomar who threw down field to Jared Burke streaking down the sideline for a 62-yard scoring play to tie the score at 7-7.

A 25-yard Mark Knue field goal gave the Bulldogs a 10-7 first-quarter lead.

In the second quarter, Carrillo returned a Stanwood punt 44 yards for his second touchdown as Mount Vernon began to pull away, taking a 16-7 lead at the half.

“What can I say about Carillo?” said Christianson of his senior wide receiver. “Every time he touched the ball something happened. What a great way to play what might be your last game.”

Mount Vernon scored once more on a 20-yard Tim Woodmansee run. Joseph Webb attempted to get Stanwood back into the game with a 1-yard touchdown run late in the game.