S. County mugged by West Sound

  • David Pan<br>Enterprise sports editor
  • Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:34am

EDMONDS — A little home cooking didn’t make much of a difference for Snohomish County in its Northwest Football League clash with West Sound.

After spending most of July on the road, the Vikings returned to the friendly confines of Edmonds Stadium for their first home game since June 28.

But the problems Snohomish County encountered on the road — a struggling offense and an inconsistent defense — continued and the Orcas dominated the Vikings en route to a 61-7 victory Aug. 3.

The Snohomish County offense struggled in the first quarter, turning over the ball over on its first three offensive possessions. The Viking defense, however, allowed West Sound to convert on only one of those three turnovers — a 6-yard run by running back Andy Alfred.

Snohomish County (0-6 in the league, 0-8 overall) only trailed 6-0 at the end of the first quarter.

“We had some guys making some plays and we were getting guys in the backfield,” Viking coach Wes Fischer said.

The inability of Snohomish County’s offense to mount any drives then put the defense in some difficult situations.

West Sound (5-2, 5-3) began its first two drives of the second quarter at the Viking 35- and 26-yard lines. The results were a pair of touchdowns — a 4-yard run by Alfred and a 3-yard scamper by running back Malcolm DeWalt — and 21-0 lead. A 16-yard blocked punt return by O’Neil Staples upped the Orcas advantage to 27-0.

Snohomish County scored its only points on the ensuing kickoff when Davie Beeks returned the kickoff 83 yards for the touchdown with 42 second remaining in the second quarter.

West Sound scored three touchdowns in the third quarter and closed out the game with a pair in the fourth.

“There was not enough consistency all night to get it done,” Fischer said of his defense. “We’d stop them for three downs and if they went for it on the fourth down, most of the time they got it …. they had three or four big plays in the second and third quarter that really hurt us.”

Much of the Viking offensive struggles can be traced to the line.

“Our offensive line really got schooled,” Fischer said. “I’ll credit them for playing such a hard fought ball game. They just played their butts off.”

Injuries have hurt the Snohomish County line.

“We just need some more depth,” Fischer said. “We don’t have any depth at all.”

Up next for Snohomish County is a 6 p.m. game tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 9) against the Eastside Hawks at Juanita High School.

Eastside suffered its first defeat of the season to Willamette Valley 38-29 last week.

“We’re going to try and get to their quarterback before he can get the ball off because they’ve got receivers out there that are out of this world,” Fischer said. “Several of them used to play for me. Some of them have been in pro camps.”

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