Scots shut down Cubs

Mike Wollan entered Shorecrest’s football game against Sedro-Woolley hoping to establish some continuity.

His defense came through for him so spectacularly that Wollan was reduced to running down his roster in an effort make sure everyone was included in his praise.

“It was just about everybody,” Wollan said of his team’s defensive effort. “Any time you (have a performance like this) the whole team has to be on board.”

Shorecrest held Sedro-Woolley to just 80 total yards of offense the entire game, senior David Cannon added two touchdowns, and the Scots dominated the ball to take a 20-8 non-conference victory Oct. 2 at Sedro-Woolley High School.

Shorecrest senior running back/safety Jordan Brown turned in his third strong game in a row, rushing for 177 yards on 27 carries, and Cannon added 65 yards on 12 attempts, but Wollan didn’t mince words about where the credit belonged.

“We had an unbelievable defensive performance,” Wollan said. “… The defense was electric.”

The stats would certainly agree.

The Scots focused on containing Sedro-Woolley quarterback Derek Garcia – who leads his team in both passing and rushing yards in a shotgun spread offense – and forcing someone else on the team to produce.

As a result, Sedro-Woolley went 1 for 10 on third down attempts, producing 33 rushing yards on 24 attempts and completing 5 of 16 pass attempts for 47 yards.

Shorecrest, by contrast, churned out 282 yards of total offense – 207 of those rushing yards.

It was the second win in a row for Shorecrest (2-3 overall), which was coming off an dominating 41-21 victory over rival Shorewood, and a big step in the right direction for a program that started the season 0-3.

“It’s definitely (a great feeling),” Wollan said. “Winning a couple games is contagious. It was pretty special on Friday. … Hopefully this gives us a little momentum starting league play next week.”

One thing Wollan would like to work on is penalties. The Scots racked up 11 penalties for 104 yards against Sedro-Woolley, and it prevented the Scots from putting away the game until late in the fourth quarter.

Shorecrest moved the ball with relative ease in the first half but points were hard to come by — Cannon put Shorecrest up 7-0 at halftime by hauling in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Michael Johnson in the second quarter — but Wollan said the Scots were pushed out the red zone on two other occasions by penalties.

“There were a couple big holding penalties in the red zone,” Wollan said. “ …. It was a combination of a lot of things. We’ll go back to the drawing board and reiterate the fundamentals. … Some of the penalties I can live with. (But when you have 4 or 5) false starts, it’s not paying attention.”

In the third quarter, Cannon capped off a Shorecrest drive by breaking free for his second touchdown of the game – a 12-yard run that put the Scots up 13-0.

That looked like it might be enough, but a botched a punt return with about six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter set up Sedro-Woolley deep inside Shorecrest territory, and allowed the home team to draw to within 13-8.

Ted Hammond – who shares time at quarterback with Johnson – answered with a long drive, and hit senior wide receiver Kofi Asiedu for a 32-yard touchdown for the game’s final score.

“We’re getting healthy,” Wollan said of the win. “Between the flu and a few other issues, we haven’t had a lot of the faces we expected to.”

Jack Bergthold – who missed a game earlier this year with the flu – and Ian Bolstad spent time at linebacker for Shorecrest and Brown and Matt Rohrback spent time at safety.

Shorecrest opens up league play Friday against a strong opponent – Meadowdale, ranked No. 6 in the state by The Tacoma News-Tribune.

“They have a lot of guys that can beat you,” Wollan said of Meadowdale, which boasts a strong running game in senior back Naji Moore-Taylor. “… We’re certainly going to have our hands full. … We beat them last year (by) controlling the football and (not) turning the ball over. If we can grind the ball, control the clock, that’s what we’re going to have to do to have a chance.”