Archbishop Murphy beats Cedarcrest

Cedarcrest hung tough against Archbishop Murphy but in the end the Wildcats pulled away for a hard-earned 28-12 victory Sept. 22 at Duvall.

Last year, Archbishop Murphy demolished Cedarcrest 66-7, but the Red Wolves took a 6-0 lead last week and challenged the Wildcats throughout the game.

“We played hard, they played hard,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Terry Ennis said. “They didn’t make very many mistakes (and) we didn’t make too many mistakes … We had to work our tails off to get that done.”

The Wildcats improved to 2-0 in Cascade Conference play and 4-0 overall with the win. Archbishop Murphy plays at Lakewood (0-2, 0-4) at 7 p.m. tonight (Friday, Sept. 29).

Against Cedarcrest, Archbishop Murphy running back Dejan Sughrim rushed for a game-high 136 yards on 11 carries. He scored the Wildcats’ first touchdown on a 68-yard run in the second quarter to put them up 7-6.

The Wildcats stretched the lead to 14-6 when running back Nick Snyder scampered in from seven yards out and Ian Houts kicked the extra point with about two minutes left in the third quarter.

Running back Tony Houts’ 3-yard touchdown run and J.D. Melton’s 21-yard touchdown reception from quarterback John-Paul Blair gave the Wildcats a commanding 28-6 fourth quarter lead after Ian Houts’ extra points.

Tony Houts rushed for 123 yards on 13 carries on the night.

Cedarcrest added a late touchdown to close out the scoring.

“I thought John-Paul Blair, our quarterback, did a good job of faking and playing error-free,” Ennis said. “He hit one play-action (touchdown) pass that was helped by the fake. He’s getting better each week which certainly helps us.”

“The offensive line did a pretty darn good job as a unit,” Ennis added.

After a sluggish first half, the Wildcat defense applied more pressure in the second half.

“Defense in the second half played with just a little more aggression,” Ennis said. “It took them a little bit of time to get in the flow of the game. (The) pass defense was exceptional as far as being in the right place. Our kids did a nice job in terms of coverage.”

Ennis said the Wildcats have focused on improving a different aspect of their game each week. Last week it was tackling.

“I’m real happy with the improvement we’ve made each week realizing we need to keep doing that,” he said. “That’s up to the kids to know how important it is. The good thing with young kids is you have the opportunity to improve every week.”