SNOHOMISH — Getting off to a good start is a foremost rule of winning football.
Of course, rules can sometimes be broken, as Snohomish proved emphatically on Tuesday night, crushing Shorewood 34-6 to advance to the state Class 4A football playoffs.
Despite falling behind on the game’s opening play — Shorewood’s Eric Sather ran the kickoff back 84 yards for a touchdown — the Panthers went on to dominate in virtually every phase.
Senior running back Jake Darling scored three touchdowns and the defense shut down a potent Thunderbirds offense, seizing three interceptions and recovering a fumble, as Snohomish improved its season mark to 8-2.
With the victory, the Panthers advance to play defending state champion Kentwood. Shorewood finished its season 6-4 overall.
Against the T-birds, Snohomish was stung in the early moments as Sather scooped up a bounding kickoff at the 16-yard line and headed upfield. He found a gaping seam in the middle, made one slight cutback, and went untouched to the end zone.
Twelve seconds had elapsed and Shorewood was on the board, though the Panthers blocked the extra point.
“All that did was infuriate us,” Darling said. “That’s something teams shouldn’t do (to us), but we just said, ‘OK, that’s over with. Let’s start at point zero and get it rolling.’ And we got it rolling.”
“We’ve been behind a lot this year, maybe four or five times,” Snohomish coach Mark Perry said, “but our kids haven’t given up at all. We haven’t folded our tent against anybody.”
Snohomish answered on its second possession, moving 65 yards in five plays for a touchdown. Fifty-seven of those yards came on a burst through the middle by Pat Job, who broke to the right sideline and carried to the Shorewood 7. Three plays later, Darling went through the left side for a 1-yard TD.
The Panthers scored on three of four possessions in the second quarter. Youngren kicked a 24-yard field goal early in the period and Snohomish cashed in two touchdown drives just before halftime.
Ross Fay went over from two yards out with 3:36 to play before intermission, an opportunity set up by a 53-yard Job dash down the left sideline. Then, after Shorewood fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, Darling scored on a 1-yard burst with 48 seconds left for a 24-6 Snohomish margin at the break.
Darling scored on another 1-yard run in the third period and Youngren booted a 36-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter for the game’s final points.
“It was a little spooky for us right off the bat, obviously, with that kickoff return,” Perry said. “But after that we settled in and did a good job.”Rich Myhre is a writer for The (Everett) Herald.
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