EDMONDS — Overcoming a stout Mountlake Terrace defense, inopportune penalties and the occasional torrential downpour, the Meadowdale football team managed to get it done Sept. 10 at Edmonds Stadium.
The Mavericks fought hard to defeat the Mountlake Terrace Hawks 28-7 in a Western Conference 4A South Division game where big plays and key mistakes made all the difference.
The Hawks played the Mavericks well until late in the third quarter, closing to within seven points, but they were unable to stop a determined, yet penalty-riddled Maverick offense and running back Travis Anderson.
“Meadowdale is a good football team and their fullback runs real hard, so we knew we’d be in for a battle,” Hawks coach Tony Umayam said.
Meadowdale coach Mark Stewart said, “Our effort the last couple weeks has been great. We hung in there and got it done (tonight).”
The first big play came early in the first quarter when Anderson broke free for a 25-yard touchdown run.
But Meadowdale was unable to add to its lead for most of the first half, thanks to big penalties on the Mavericks offense, including a holding infraction that wiped out a 47-yard touchdown run by Anderson.
As the second quarter wound down, it appeared Mountlake Terrace would go into halftime with no further blemishes, but then the Hawks had a crucial mistake on special teams.
With just over two minutes remaining before halftime, the Hawks were forced to punt from their own 39 yard line.
The ball was snapped over punter Tyler Hjort’s head. After picking up the errant snap, Hjort’s punt was blocked by defensive back Ben King, sending the ball out of bounds at the Mountlake Terrace 6-yard line.
The block set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Meadowdale quarterback Demetri Huffman, which gave the Mavericks a 14-0 lead with 1:35 left in the half.
“(We) have a bad snap which gave them excellent field position,” Umayam said.
The Hawks would soon find out that it just wasn’t going to be their night.
Mountlake Terrace caught a break early in the third quarter when it recovered a Meadowdale fumble on the Maverick 28. But the Hawks returned the favor by fumbling on a first-and-goal at the 3.
“We were moving the ball pretty well on the ground and then we coughed it up on their goal line and that cost us a scoring chance,” Umayam said. “That’s something we’re going to have to focus on every week, is not giving up those big plays and keeping the big plays in our favor.”
After stopping the Mavericks on their next offensive possession, Mountlake Terrace running back Caroll Powell scored on a 48-yard run to cut the deficit 14-7.
The Hawks’ defense, however, couldn’t rein in the Mavericks offense for long.
On the next Mavericks’ drive, Anderson broke free of several tacklers for a 49-yard run, putting Meadowdale inside the Mountlake Terrace 10.
Following a pair of penalties, one of which resulted in a third Anderson touchdown being called back, Anderson finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run up the gut to boost the Meadowdale advantage to 21-7 with 11:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“Travis Anderson continued to run hard and continued to gain yards,” Stewart said.
Anderson rushed for 140 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.
Anderson then recovered a Hawks fumble, which led to a 29-yard touchdown pass from Huffman to wide receiver Jake Linton with 5:45 left in the game.
The Mavericks (1-1) bounced back from a tough loss to Kamiak last week.
“We played hard, but too many penalties, too many mistakes,” Stewart said. “We’ve got to get a little better cause we’ve got a good team to play next week.”
Meadowdale takes on district rival Edmonds-Woodway at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday, Sept. 17) at Edmonds Stadium.
The Hawks (0-2) look to regroup against Jackson at 5 p.m. tonight, also at Edmonds Stadium.
“Jackson is going to be a pretty tough opponent to face, so our schedule doesn’t get any easier,” Umayam said.
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