Shorewood football charges past E-W, 31-13

EDMONDS — After suffering an 18-point loss and second defeat of the season last week against Mountlake Terrace, the Shorewood High School football team released its boiled-up energy onto Edmonds-Woodway Friday evening, storming past the Warriors 31-13 in a Wesco 3A South matchup and spoiling their homecoming game.

Stormrays senior running back Gatsby Palmer kept the chain crew on their toes the entire game with 17 carries for 91 yards and three touchdowns. Senior quarterback Tyler Giles completed five of six passes for 61 yards and ran in a five-yard touchdown. Junior wide receiver Finn Bachler had seven carries for 94 yards, and senior wide receiver Niko Zacharias tallied two receptions for 36 yards.

Shorewood (5-2 overall, 3-2 league) compiled 39 rushes for 260 yards, outrunning Edmonds-Woodway’s (2-5, 1-4) 34 carries for 66 yards. The Warriors added 12 receptions for 112 yards.

“We knew they were going to be very fundamental and well coached,” Shorewood coach Rob Petschl said. “It was good to get our quarterback playing in the second (half). Last week, he came out after the first half due to sickness. … Kids came out a little more physical than they were a week ago.

“Gatsby has been a terrific performer for us all year long,” he continued. “We just thought that we saw a little bit of a gap where we could get the middle, and he’s our guy that goes up the middle. We’re a veer team, so we feel like we can block anything on offense. And (E-W) gave us a five-man up front that kind of fit into what we wanted to do and made it so we couldn’t really get the outsides as much.”

The Stormrays received the ball to begin the game and marched down the field in six plays to notch seven points less than three minutes into the first quarter. Shorewood forced Edmonds-Woodway to punt on its first drive, and the Stormrays needed only four plays to make it 14-0 about four minutes after their initial score. Zacharias had two carries for 25 yards and a 26-yard reception on the drive, which placed the Stormrays at the Warriors’ 17-yard line and led to Palmer’s second of three rushing touchdowns.

Edmonds-Woodway got on the scoreboard a minute before halftime. Facing fourth-and-10 from the 18-yard line, backup junior quarterback Andrew Bau connected with junior wide receiver Lukas Wanke, and he lateralled the ball to junior running back Nathan Schlack, who dodged a few tackles for a touchdown.

Shorewood came out firing in the third quarter, forcing a fumble on Edmonds-Woodway’s first drive of the second half, which led to a field goal. With four minutes left in the quarter, the Stormrays took seven plays to increase their lead to 24-7. They scored again early in the fourth quarter on Giles’ quarterback keeper for a 31-7 advantage.

Schlack drove in his second touchdown from one yard out midway through the fourth.

“(Shorewood) runs that option, which is a challenge, and you got to be real disciplined and everybody’s got to make the reads,” said Warriors coach John Gradwohl, who came back out of retirement this month to take over after first-year head coach Bill Marsh resigned. “They ran their offense well. They looked like a well-oiled machine, especially those first two drives. … The difference in the game was up front. They took away some things that we kind of count on to be able to do and we weren’t able to do it consistently. … We got (one) game left, and I’d like to see us finish on a high note going into next season and give seniors some good memories.”

Gradwohl indicated that a decision about his coaching future will come at a later time.

“That’s a discussion after the season,” he said. “I’m having a good time right now. The kids are working hard. I love coaching the game. I have other things I want to do also. That’s why I retired.

“I also think about, ‘Maybe (E-W) needs a young guy in here with some energy,’” he continued. “I don’t want this to be a job you get to go to another job. I want this to be your job that you want. I want a 20-year coach, somebody who’s going to be invested in the community and program.”