Kamiak puts an end to Hawks’ playoff hopes aspirations

EVERETT — When the season started, Mountlake Terrace football coach Alex Barashkoff and his players had a goal of making it to the postseason – a lofty reach for a long-moribund program.

But the Hawks seemed improved.

For Barashkoff and his staff, they finally had a team that had come of age under their tutelage. As the season progressed, each week seemed a little better. Despite some close losses, the Hawks were still in contention for a postseason berth.

Then on Oct. 25, a trip to Goddard Stadium in south Everett for a meeting with the Kamiak Knights brought back nightmares of the way things used to be for the Hawks. The Knights, with quickness and precision, dashed the hopes of the Hawks with a jarring 49-12 victory.

This game was over in seconds. After the Hawks won the coin toss and opted to kick the ball away to start the game. That turned out to be a tactical error.

On the second play from scrimmage, Derrick Bradley bolted 66 yards for a touchdown. That run was the beginning of an assault on the Hawk defense by Bradley that would result in 15 rushes for 173 yards and four touchdowns.

Unable to move the ball on the next series of downs, the Hawks punted from deep in their own territory. The Knights took over on the Hawk 45 yard line and needed only a half dozen plays to set up a 4-yard run by Bradley to extend the lead to 14-0.

Again, the Hawk offense stalled deep in its own territory. Punting with their backs to the goal line, the Hawks kicked the ball into the hands of Whitney Wilson, waiting at midfield. Wilson scrambled through the outstretched arms of the Hawk defenders for his third return for a touchdown in the last two weeks. With five minutes remaining in the quarter, the Knights had amassed a 21-0 lead.

Bradley picked up his third touchdown of the quarter on an 8-yard run to give Kamiak a commanding 28-0 lead.

Mountlake Terrace got on the board two minutes into the second quarter when Brian Ellersick found Josh Cardin on a 32-yard pass. The Hawks would see the end zone one other time, midway through the fourth quarter, when freshman quarterback Troy Hennum took the ball in from the 6-yard line.

Kamiak’s Paul Tomisser ran back a Hawk punt 50 yards to stake the Knights to a 35-6 halftime lead.

Sophomore Tony Virata capped off the night for Kamiak when he came in late in the second half and picked up 109 yards and a touchdown on four carries.

For Barashkoff, the loss was a huge disappointment. But he felt that his team could look at the Knights and see the future.

“We saw that night that we have work to do,” said the fourth- year coach. “We need to do more off-season conditioning, get our numbers up.”

He had nothing but respect for Kamiak and knew that with a few breaks, his team would have been right back in the game.

“They are a great team,” he said of the Knights. “They scored quickly on us, but we threw a bad pass and failed to capitalize on situations handed to us.”

With the loss, the Hawks are out of the postseason picture. But Barashkoff and his players still have a goal for this season. Something that has been missing from Terrace football for a long time – a season that is at least .500 and hopefully a winning season.

The last time the Mountlake Terrace football team had a break-even season, most of the current players were somewhere between cosmic dust and diapers. It was 1984. Ronald Reagan was in pursuit of a second term, the Olympics were in Los Angeles and even the Berlin Wall still had some life in it.

Sixteen seasons later, the trail of tears and frustration that has been the hallmark of Mountlake Terrace football could be erased, beginning with a game tonight against Jackson. Both teams are 3-4 on the season.

“They aren’t going to lay down for us,” said Barashkoff. “But that’s our goal, a winning season. We want to accomplish 5-4.”

At Goddard Stadium

MLT0606 — 12

Kamiak28777 — 49

K—Bradley 66 run (Leach kick)

K—Bradley 4 run (Leach kick)

K—Wilson 50 punt return (Leach kick)

K—Bradley 8 run (Leach kick)

MT—Cardin 32 pass from Ellersick (kick failed)

K—Tomisser 50 pass from Rogers (Leach kick)

K—Bradley 8 run (Leach kick)

MT—Hennum 6 run (kick failed)