RENTON — As Marysville Getchell’s Cody Stone exited the handshake line following his high school’s very first varsity football game — a 40-0 loss to Lindbergh on Thursday evening, he didn’t quite know where to go.
The 6-foot, 170 pound linebacker wasn’t sure where coach Davis Lura would giv
e his post game speech. Before Stone figured it out and headed toward the end zone, he was intercepted by a Lindbergh assistant coach.
“You are a good player,” the coach yelled while hugging Stone around the shoulder pads. “Keep being physical. I wish our kids would hit like that.”
There were plenty of small victories like Stone’s performance in Marysville Getchell’s inaugural game.
“We got to see what we are made of today,” Lura said. “We had a lot of questions about that. A lot of these kids haven’t played at this level before.”
One of Getchell’s biggest moments in the game came in the first quarter when the Chargers stuffed Lindbergh’s offense on fourth and goal as the sun set over the 737s parked on nearby Boeing Field, merely a stone’s throw from the freshly renovated Renton Memorial Stadium that was playing host to its first game.
A few plays later Chargers quarterback Dylan Diedrich dropped back to pass for the first time of the night in his own end zone and found wideout Kaleb Symer downfield for a 17-yard gain and MG’s very first first down.
For the few dozen Marysville fans that made the trek down Interstate 405, those moments couldn’t have looked much better for a team full of inexperience at nearly every position.
Unfortunately for Chargers fans there weren’t many of those moments.
Diedrich completed just three of 14 passes and had five interceptions — four in a row at one point.
“I think I made a lot of mistakes,” Diedrich, a junior quarterback, said. He refused to use inexperience as an excuse. “We all knew what to do. We just went into the game wide-eyed and expecting … I don’t know …. (Lindbergh’s players) had all done it before and we haven’t.
The Chargers’ total yards didn’t amount to much and they managed just four first downs. They never set foot in Eagle territory, although they came tantalizingly close on the final play of the first half, when Stone broke off the team’s biggest run of the game. It went nine yards from the team’s 40.
It was a game of firsts, but the Chargers will have to wait for next week’s first Wesco 3A contest against league-favorite Meadowdale for their first points.
Lura was proud of his team, beginning his postgame chat with, “Congratulations, you just made history.” But he was unwilling to let the players off the hook for their numerous errors.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Lura said. “But I think we also learned from those mistakes and next week the kids aren’t going to make those mistakes. The score didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, but we stayed positive and we are going to keep working.”
On the positive side was the defense, which blocked an extra point, recovered a fumble, had two impressive fourth-and-goal stands while shutting out the Eagles’ offense in the second half. The final three Lindbergh touchdowns came from its defense.
Phillip Stewart, who played varsity football in California before moving to Marysville is one of 16 seniors on the roster and was another Charger who refused to give his team an easy out for the loss. The Chargers might not have played that well, but the experience will be good for the team, he said.
“We did really bad this game,” the linebacker said. “We can only get better. We found all our weaknesses.”
At Renton Memorial Stadium
Marysville Getchell 0 0 0 0 — 0
Lindburgh 7 20 13 0 — 40
Lindbergh–D. Wiitanen 61 pass from Stuart (Holt kick)
Lindbergh–Callen 31 run (snap failed)
Lindbergh–Yamaguchi 26 pass from Stuart (Holt kick)
Lindbergh– Simpson 40 interception return (Holt kick)
Lindbergh–Boissonneau 32 fumble return (Holt kick)
Lindbergh–J. Wiitanen 24 interception return (kick blocked)
Records — Marysville Getchell 0-1 overall; Lindbergh 1-0
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