The Meadowdale football team got exactly what it wanted — a home playoff game.
The Mavericks secured the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed to the 3A quad-district playoff with their 28-7 victory over Shorewood in a Western Conference South Division game Oct. 26 at Edmonds Stadium.
Meadowdale (5-3 in the league, 5-4 overall) hosts Auburn-Riverside (4-3, 5-4) of the South Puget Sound League at 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3 at Edmonds Stadium.
Securing that home field advantage was important for the Mavericks.
“We’d rather stay here than travel to Auburn,” said Meadowdale head coach Mark Stewart.
The Mavericks were battling Wesco North Division Arlington (4-4, 4-5), which beat Marysville-Pilchuck, for the top seed.
“We played OK,” Stewart said. “We struggled with concentration a little bit. But for the most part it was a pretty good quality win.”
Sophomore running back Naji Moore rushed for 157 yards on 14 carries and scored three touchdowns to lead the Mavericks. Quarterback Matt McDonagh completed 6 of 13 passes for 104 yards.
Moore scored on a 72-yard run in the first quarter and followed up with a 37-yard run in the second quarter. He added a 1-yard run in the third quarter. Senior Nick Montanari scooped up a fumble and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown later in the period.
Shorewood’s Dorian Lair scored on a 4-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Neither Moore nor sophomore Sam Werner were in the backfield at the start of the season but injuries to Montanari and Tonna Njoku forced Stewart to juggle his line-up.
“We’re using our second backfield,” Stewart said. “Sam Werner stepped in and did a good job. Naji stepped in and has done a great job.
“Fortunately, we have an abundance of running backs.”
Montanari saw most of his action on defense. Stewart is continuing to bring him along slowly. Njoku did not play and his status is day to day.
Meadowdale still has parts of its game that need to be worked on, Stewart said.
The Maverick defense didn’t have a lot of returning experience, so the focus there is on making good reads.
The offensive line still can use some fine-tuning, Stewart added. The injury bug that hit Meadowdale seems to have gone away.
“We’re fairly healthy,” Stewart said. “We’re in pretty good shape going into the playoffs.”
McDonagh missed the first half against Kamiak because he wasn’t feeling well, but he played all of last week’s game against Shorewood.
“He did fine,” Stewart said.
Auburn-Riverside has some decent size on their line and appear to be a team that can both run and throw.
“They have great receivers,” Stewart said. “They’re back run hard. … They’re going to be pretty physical and tough to handle.
“They’re pretty physical up front with their offensive line.”
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