E-W pounds Mountlake Terrace

Edmonds-Woodway took a step forward, while Mountlake Terrace took a step back in last week’s Western Conference South Division showdown.

Senior quarterback Kyle McCartney shredded the Hawks’ secondary, and junior running back Tony Heard continued to make life miserable for the opposition to lead the Warriors to a 56-7 rout over Mountlake Terrace Sept. 28 at Edmonds Stadium.

“They’re at least as good as last year,” said Mountlake Terrace head coach Tony Umayam. “They’re so balanced and they can hurt you through both the air and with the ground game. I expect they will go deep into the playoffs again.”

McCartney completed 9 of 10 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns. Heard rushed for 119 yards on 13 carries and scored three TDs. His lower numbers (Heard rushed for 347 two weeks ago against Lynnwood) were more a function of Edmonds-Woodway (5-0 in the league, 5-0 overall) jumping to a 49-7 halftime lead than the Hawks’ run defense.

Mountlake Terrace (1-3, 1-4) stuffed Heard’s first run of the game, but then the junior standout responded with a 52-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game.

“We ran into a buzz saw,” Umayam said. “You combine that with us not playing a very good football game, we deserved to get blown out.”

Edmonds-Woodway coach John Gradwohl said that the Warriors appeared to have reached a plateau in their last couple of games and he was hoping to see his team sharpen its play, especially after a penalty-laden performance in a victory over Lynnwood two weeks ago.

Gradwohl liked what he saw on offense, defense and special teams.

“We needed to take a step forward and keep getting better,” he said. “The kids had a great week of practice. … It showed on Friday.”

Umayam saw plenty of issues that contributed to the loss. The offense struggled to get into any kind of a rhythm against a tough Edmonds-Woodway defense. The Warriors did an excellent job of taking away many of Mountlake Terrace’s plays.

“They did a good job on our sweep and they also made it rough for us to run inside,” Umayam said. “We were able to complete a few passes but not enough to get any kind of drives sustained.”

The Hawks’ defense missed assignments and was out of position, Umayam added.

“When you do that against one of the best football teams in the state, you’re going to get burned,” he said. “We’re going to go back to the fundamentals — aligning right, understanding your job and executing it.”

The Warriors showed improvement in executing their assignments, lowering their pad level and in special teams. Edmonds-Woodway had been giving up too many yards on kickoffs, Gradwohl said. The kickoff coverage was not an issue in Friday’s contest.

Gradwohl also liked that penalties were kept to a minimum. The Warriors were called only three times for 25 yards after being flagged nine times for 97 against the Royals.

“I thought we played a much cleaner game,” Gradwohl said. “That was huge. It’s important that we cleaned up our act before we played Kamiak.”

Senior wide receiver Antoinne Wafer caught four passes for 95 yards and two touchdowns. He also returned a punt 70 yards for a score.

Mountlake Terrace senior quarterback Tony Ellersick ran for the Hawks’ lone touchdown.

Edmonds-Woodway takes on the Knights (4-0, 5-0) in a battle for first place at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 5, at Goddard Stadium. Kamiak knocked off Shorewood 35-6.

“They’re very physical. They’ve always been a challenge,” Gradwohl said. “They’re 5-0 and obviously playing at a high level right now. It’ll be a heck of a challenge for us.”

Mountlake Terrace is looking to regroup against Jackson at 5 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium. The Timberwolves (2-2, 2-3) pummeled Lynnwood 42-7.

The Hawks were without running back/defensive Billy Lechtenberg, who suffered a leg injury in practice prior to the Edmonds-Woodway game. Lechtenberg is doubtful for this week’s contest.

“We’re going to have to have some guys step up and make plays on offense and our offensive line is going to have to pick up their level of play regardless of who’s back there at running back,” Umayam said.