Slow start, same ending

EDMONDS – For 12 minutes Tuesday night something very strange happened.

Believe it or not, the Archbishop Murphy High School football team looked beatable. The Wildcats gave up a big pass play, dropped a sure touchdown pass and committed two huge penalties – one that momentarily erased a TD and another that forced a rare punt.

“We came out here playing a team that we had already beaten,” Archbishop senior quarterback Kyle Wilkins said, “and I don’t think everyone was in tune to how important the game was. As we progressed into it I think we got our blocks down and played a lot better.”

Murphy eventually morphed into the powerhouse reputation that comes with two straight state titles. After a shaky start, the Wildcats overwhelmed Nooksack Valley 48-6 for their 37th consecutive victory. Junior Shiloh Keo scored three touchdowns and intercepted a pass to ignite Murphy in a Class 2A District 1 winner-to-state game at Edmonds Stadium.

Winners of the last two 1A state titles, Archbishop Murphy also defeated Nooksack 33-7 Oct. 29 in a non-league road game.

“After that slow first-quarter start, we came out to play,” said Keo, who carried nine times for 138 yards, including 86- and 5-yard TD runs. “At halftime we made some adjustments and I think it helped a lot.”

Murphy took a 7-0 lead at the 5:36 mark of the first quarter when Craig Duncan (13 carries, 111 yards) shot up the middle for a 15-yard TD run, his 14th of the season. It was the only score of the quarter as Nooksack had three first downs, compared to Murphy’s two.

But the Wildcats got their Wing-T offense rolling and piled up 34 points in the second and third quarters to turn a briefly competitive contest into a rout.

Archbishop Murphy (11-0) will play Port Townsend 7 p.m. Saturday at Silverdale Stadium. It will be Murphy’s third game in 10 days. How will the Wildcats, who also got 89 rushing yards on eight carries from Stan Smith, find the energy to compete at their peak level?

“Focus, hard work, determination,” Keo said. “We want it bad.”

Nooksack Valley (4-7) seemed to badly want a victory Tuesday, but it ran out of gas after a spirited start. Nooksack coach Robb Myhre said he liked his team’s effort but it simply couldn’t match Murphy’s athleticism. “Their team speed is obviously a lot greater than ours. It’s hard to contain that. They’re a well-coached program.”

Nooksack quarterback Kyle Mitchell completed 14 of 29 passes for 180 yards, including a TD and two interceptions. Alex Vandyken, his top receiver, had eight catches for 104 yards.

The Wildcats jumped ahead 14-0 on their first offensive play of the second quarter when Keo took the ball to the left hash and sprinted for an 86-yard TD, his 10th on the ground.

Nooksack used a strong passing attack to cut it to 14-6 with 6:39 remaining in the first half. Mitchell completed four of six passes for all 66 yards on the drive, including a 4-yard TD toss to Jeremiah Diacogiannis in the back of the end zone.

Smith’s team-high 19th TD run gave Murphy a 27-6 lead with 2:54 remaining in the first half.

Keo scored again from 5 yards out less than four minutes into the third to make it 34-6. He caught a 10-yard TD pass from Wilkins about three minutes later as the Wildcats bumped their lead to 41-6.

Murphy backup QB Marshall Thompson snuck in from 2 yards to make it 48-6 with 11:18 to go in the game.

Archbishop lost a season-high three fumbles last Thursday in a 21-6 victory over Lakewood, which gave the Wildcats their toughest test of the season. Murphy seemed determined to hold on to the ball Tuesday. It lost one fumble in the fourth quarter, but the game was already decided.

“We were kind of scared coming into practice,” after the Lakewood game, Keo said. “We knew we were going to get punished for all the fumbles we had. I think it helped a lot because that’s one of the biggest things in football – ball control.”

Murphy also took advantage of its speed on the Edmonds Stadium turf. Three of its scoring plays were 26 yards or longer.

“The whole team felt confident because we were playing on turf tonight,” Keo said. “We thought we could use that to our advantage because we have speed on this team.”

Added Keo, “I don’t want to say it, but it is kind of hard to stop this offense we run because there’s a lot of faking involved.”

They sure faked everyone out in the first quarter.

At Edmonds

N. Valley0600-6

A. Murphy720147-48

A. Murphy-Duncan 15 run (Fritsch kick)

A. Murphy-Keo 86 run (Fritsch kick)

N. Valley-Diacogiannis 4 pass from K. Mitchell (kick failed)

A. Murphy-Wilkins 26 run (Fritsch kick)

A. Murphy-Smith 43 run (Fritsch kick blocked)

A. Murphy-Keo 5 run (Fritsch kick)

A. Murphy-Keo 10 pass from Wilkins (Fritsch kick)