SEATTLE — At least one of the questions the Archbishop Murphy football team had going into last weekend’s Emerald City Kickoff Classic may have been answered.
The Wildcats appear to have found a possible successor to last year’s dynamic running back duo of Stan Smith and Shiloh Keo.
Senior Dejan Sughrim rushed for 117 yards on five carries and scored one touchdown to lead Archbishop Murphy to a 28-6 victory over Orting in both teams’ season opener Sept. 2 at Qwest Field.
Sughrim’s numbers would have been even more impressive but he had touchdown runs of 75 and 70 yards called back due to penalties.
Eight other players saw action in the backfield, which was head coach Terry Ennis’ plan coming into the game.
“I said it would be a little more like running by committee,” Ennis said. “We had a lot of looks at guys and there were highlights and lowlights. Dejan was a highlight with his speed in the secondary, so that is something we can build on. As far as having a set backfield, we’re going to work on that each week.
“We’re not going to replace Stan and Shiloh. We’re going to be successful doing other things.”
The two touchdowns that were called back provided extra motivation for Sughrim, who did not play football his junior season. He saw action in the secondary as a sophomore.
“It made me want to go out there and play harder and score another touchdown,” Sughrim said.
Teammate Henry Woods rushed for 37 yards on 10 carries and scored two touchdowns.
The Wildcats (1-0) did have some questions on how the offense would fare against Orting (0-1), senior quarterback John-Paul Blair said. Archbishop Murphy was the Class 2A state runnerup, while Orting was a 2A state quarterfinalist, which has dropped down to 1A this season.
“We weren’t sure how our offense was going to hold up against their defense,” Blair said. “As soon as we scored the first touchdown (we said) maybe we do know what we’re doing.”
Two plays after Sughrim’s touchdown was called back, Blair surprised the Cardinal secondary by throwing a 85-yard touchdown pass to sophomore split end J.D. Melton at the 5:25 mark of the first quarter. Blair would throw only one more pass — an incompletion in the fourth quarter — the rest of the game.
“It was kind of a shock that he (Ennis) actually was going to call it (pass play),” Blair said.
Ennis gave the Wildcats an overall grade of a C-plus. He felt that Archbishop Murphy had the opportunity to take control, but penalties hurt the Wildcats and enabled the Cardinals to stay in the game, which was the first of five contests played at the fourth annual event. The Wildcats were flagged seven times for 65 yards.
“For our first game, it was a good first game,” Ennis said. “It wouldn’t have been a good second game. That just lays out what’s ahead of us.”
Orting head coach Marty Parkhurst said the Cardinals’ offensive and defensive lines struggled all day. The Cardinals ran for only 53 yards on 30 carries. Orting senior quarterback Adam Gervais completed eight of 13 passes for 105 yards.
“They’re really tough up front. We couldn’t handle them all day,” Parkhurst said. “They just really physically dominated the line of scrimmage both ways. That meant we had to try some different things — get outside, throw the football more. We just couldn’t move anybody.”
Ennis noted that even though it was difficult to play good pass defense in a season opener, he liked what he saw from his secondary.
“I thought our pass defense did pretty well,” Ennis said. “Number five (Josh Tarkalson) I thought was a very talented receiver. A couple of times he got deep on us. But the best thing we did (was) when the ball was thrown, we rallied to the ball and tackled the guy who caught the ball.”
Tarkalson caught six passes for 76 yards.
The overall defensive effort wasn’t what Ennis wanted to see, though.
“Our objective is three-and-out,” he said. “We didn’t do that a couple of times. We had third and long and they got back into the game. Defensively I think we need to work on those three-and-out plays.
“Everyone worked hard. We worked hard to get there. We weren’t as good tacklers as we need to be. But everyone was working hard as a defensive unit. The pursuit was excellent.”
Archbishop Murphy took a 14-0 lead when Sughrim broke free on a 86-yard touchdown run with 2:46 remaining in the first quarter.
“I found the open spot and just hit that hole,” Sughrim said.
Woods scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 3-yard run at the 9:54 mark of the second quarter. He later would add a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Orting scored its only touchdown on the opening play of the third quarter — a 88-yard kickoff return by Tarkalson, the first time he has ever run a kickoff back for a score.
The 9:30 a.m. kickoff meant that the players had an early wakeup call. Blair got up at 5:30 a.m. and said that by the end of the game, he and his teammates were ready for a nap.
“It was a fun experience,” Sughrim said of playing at Qwest Field. “I’m pretty sure it was a fun experience for the team too. I enjoyed it.”
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