SHORELINE — The chances of a King’s upset looked good going into the fourth quarter of last week’s football showdown with Friday Harbor.
But all that changed during a disastrous 30-second stretch that saw the Knights go from leading the second-ranked Wolverines by three to trailing by 10.
Two plays after quarterback Cole Franklin’s 1-yard touchdown dive handed Friday Harbor its first lead, Brock McNairy returned an interception 35 yards for a score to give the Wolverines a 19-9 advantage with 6:16 left.
The final King’s possession also ended with an interception and Friday Harbor held on for a 19-9 victory in the non-conference clash Sept. 8 at Woolsey Stadium. It was the first action of the season for the Knights (1-1), who won their opener by forfeit.
“If you want to be the best, you’ve got to play the best,” King’s coach Jim Shapiro said. “Tonight I think we showed we can play toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the state.”
Four turnovers spoiled an inspired defensive effort by the Knights, who took control early with a pair of crucial stops inside their 35-yard line on fourth down. John Park’s 34-yard field goal at the 2:10 mark capped a 15-play drive that used six minutes of the first quarter and gave King’s a 3-0 edge.
Andrew Scheffer picked off King’s quarterback Greg Uhrich and darted 20 yards untouched to the end zone as the Wolverines (2-0) took a 6-3 advantage into halftime.
After fumbling on their first possession of the second half, the Knights drove 65 yards on 12 plays to regain the lead. Senior tailback Spencer Clark rushed eight times for 50 yards to set up Uhrich’s 12-yard TD pass to Jonathan Blauert.
King’s protected its lead by again holding Friday Harbor on fourth down at the end of the third quarter. But the Wolverines used three long runs by Tyler Hart and three completions from Franklin on their next drive to move into position for Franklin’s go-ahead score with 6:42 to go.
Franklin finished 12 of 21 passing for 146 yards. Clark supplied 129 of King’s 139 rushing yards on 23 carries.
“We didn’t control the ball well offensively with the turnovers,” Shapiro said. “We need to get those mishaps out of the equation and execute a lot better next Friday.”
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