It took a little while, but in the end Archbishop Murphy claimed the Cascade Conference title.
In a back-and-forth game, Archbishop Murphy scored three key touchdowns in the fourth quarter to beat King’s 42-28 on Oct. 30 at Woolsey Stadium.
The two teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 21 when the Wildcats seized control of the contest with three straight scores.
Keola Wilkins scored on a 4-yard run and then Caleb Smith added touchdown runs of 32 and 17 yards.
“They’re a good team,” said Archbishop Murphy coach Dave Ward. “We were able to recover and play pretty well down the stretch. I thought our conditioning was good. The guys were in good shape and ready to go all four quarters.”
Alex Martinez rushed for 173 yards on 17 carries and scored on TD runs of 26-, 12- and 1-yard. It was his first game back since a shoulder separation.
“He looked good,” Ward said.
Archbishop Murphy (7-0 in the league, 8-1 overall) plays Mount Baker in a district crossover game at 7 p.m, Friday, Nov. 5 at Snohomish High School.
“Cedarcrest and King’s were competitive games this year,” Ward said. “We think that playing in close games is a good experience because in the playoffs we’re going to see competitive teams that go all the way to the wire.”
Mount Baker looks to have a huge line, and the offense likes to mix it up with some Wing-T formations and spreading the field with the shot gun.
Archbishop Murphy had some good preparation against King’s multi-talented quarterback Thomas Vincent.
“We kept a good pass run on the quarterback,” Ward said. “He could never really get comfortable until the very end after we finished it. We didn’t let him break a long run so he had to do everything by throwing the ball. (The King’s game) showed that we do need to work on pass coverage and going up and getting the ball when it’s in the air.”
Ward is hopeful he’ll have a team that is healthy and ready to go on Friday night. The Wildcats don’t have much depth behind their starters, he noted.
“We’ve got to keep the turnovers down and take advantage of our opportunities,” Ward said. “Our offensive line has done a nice job of opening some holes. That’s kind of our strength: in the middle.”
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