The Edmonds-Woodway football team was reeling.
After a season-opening stumble to Monroe, Edmonds-Woodway dropped games to Marysville Pilchuck and Meadowdale to sink to 0-3, an unfamiliar place for the perennially strong Warriors.
So John Gradwohl went back to the basics. The E-W coach stripped down the playbook, re-emphasized the run and let his players play.
And play they did. Led by running backs Desmond Young and Mark Coutee, Edmonds-Woodway has won its first two games in league play over the past two games and now sits in the driver’s seat in the Wesco South. The Warriors can clinch a South title with a win tonight over Kamiak.
“Personally I think the first three weeks were an aberration,” said Gradwohl. “I think I tried doing too much early and we didn’t do anything very well. We did a bunch of things not so well as opposed to doing a few things very well. It wasn’t so much the losses, but the fact we weren’t playing up to the level we knew we could.”
Gradwohl said the team went back to the drawing board in order to find its identity. Apparently it’s identity is a team that runs the ball really well. In its past two wins, Edmonds-Woodway sliced through Mariner and Jackson, averaging more than 350 yards on the ground.
Most of the damage has been done by Coutee and Young. The self-described “two-headed monster,” has switched lead-dog roles the past two games, with Young rushing for 253 yards against Mariner and Coutee going for 240 in last week’s win over Jackson.
“Those guys are running hard,” Gradwohl said of Coutee and Young. “The offensive line is doing a nice job of controlling the line of scrimmage, which opens it up for us offensively.”
Coutee and Young aren’t your typical running back duo. Instead of one being a masher and the other a more elusive runner, Coutee and Young are both of slight frame and use quickness more than hard hits to make yardage. Coutee, though, sees a small difference.
“He’ll make somebody look bad,” Coutee said of Young. “He’ll make highlight tape out of them. I’ll just run until you gotta catch me.”
Another difference over the past two games has been behind center. Senior Matt Cuzzetto was named the starter at quarterback coming out of summer camp, but sophomore Davis Giles has started the past two games and took most of the snaps in the two victories. Before that Giles and Cuzzetto split snaps, but for Cuzzetto, who plays full-time on defense, it may have been a little too much.
“Matt’s our quarterback on defense and when he was playing quarterback on offense we just had him doing too much,” Gradwohl said. “Balancing the load for him has made him a better defensive player.
“Davis has been doing a good job of running the game, very even keel and very mature.”
A big growing point for Giles came in the Mariner game. After throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown, Giles came back to guide the Warriors on a game-winning drive for the team’s first victory of the season.
“It felt really good, but it was just a big relief to get our first victory of the season,” Giles said.
The Warriors turnaround shows a lot about its close-knit characteristics. But it wasn’t always that way for two of them.
“Our freshman and sophomore year we didn’t really like each other,” said Coutee of he and Young. “We got into an argument and a fight. He was the baby brother and I was the older brother.
“But now we’re just family and we feel unstoppable right now.”
My pick: Edmonds-Woodway 27, Kamiak 23
Lake Stevens at Monroe
7 p.m., Monroe Stadium
Things don’t get any easier for Lake Stevens. A week after scratching and clawing for a win over rival Arlington, the Vikings travel to Monroe to take on a Bearcats team that is doing just enough to win and finds itself 4-1. Monroe eeked out victories over Snohomish and Stanwood and sits in a tie for first place with Lake Stevens at 2-0 in the North. Up against the potent Vikings, though, Monroe wilts.
My pick: Lake Stevens 32, Monroe 18
Lakewood at King’s
7 p.m., Woolsey Stadium
Another team having to look out for a letdown is Lakewood. Coming off arguably its biggest win in team history, the Cougars face a strong offensive team in King’s. The Cougars must stop Knight quarterback Billy Green, who is tearing apart defenses in the Cascade Conference. They do enough to remain unbeaten.
My pick: Lakewood 35, King’s 31
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