Shorecrest blasted by Edmonds-Woodway

EDMONDS

Antoinne Wafer didn’t have to resort to his flashy moves to find room to run. The senior kick returner’s Edmonds-Woodway teammates took care of that.

Wafer sliced through the Shorecrest coverage for kickoff returns of 92 and 88 yards and added a third touchdown on a 51-yard reception as the Warriors remained undefeated with a 63-27 victory in a Western Conference South Division shootout Sept. 14 at Edmonds Stadium.

“I just followed my blockers,” said Wafer, who hadn’t returned a kick for a score since playing for the E-W sophomore squad. “On the first one I just followed my blockers through the middle and it was wide open. The second time I just made the defenders go one way and I cut back the other way.”

The Scots drove 71 yards in 14 plays to open the game and quarterback Lars Swenson’s 7-yard TD run left E-W trailing for the first time this season. The deficit lasted all of 13 seconds as Wafer took the ensuing kickoff down the middle of the field untouched.

Wafer later capped a back and forth first half with his second momentum-shifting return, one play after Shorecrest (1-3) pulled within a touchdown with 16 seconds to go in the second quarter.

“It didn’t look like our guys in the middle were running down the lanes they’re supposed to,” Scots coach Mike Wollan said. “But their returner (Wafer) is pretty special. Last year he was the same way and he’s been doing it again so far this year.”

The Warriors extended their lead to 42-20 as quarterback Kyle McCartney lofted a TD pass to Wafer down the sideline to open the second half. But the Scots threatened again as Swenson got free for a 62-yard TD run and Andrew McDonald recovered a fumble at the E-W 33-yard line.

Back-to-back sacks stalled the Shorecrest offense and the Warriors (3-0) went on to put the game out of reach with three fourth-quarter scores. McCartney tacked on a 25-yard TD to go with first-half scoring runs of 5 and 47 yards, tailback Tony Heard scored on a 13-yard run and linebacker Tyler Lange returned a fumble 18 yards for a TD with 7:26 remaining.

“It wasn’t our best defensive game,” said Wafer, who finished with 289 all-purpose yards. “We’ve seen what we can do. We were a little flat today.”

McCartney rushed for 130 yards on six carries and was 7-for-9 passing for 175 yards and Heard added 136 rushing yards as the Warriors continued to compile staggering offensive numbers for the season. Through three games, E-W is averaging 50 points and nearly 450 yards per game.

“You’ve got to pick your poison of what you want to take away,” Wollan said of the E-W offense. “Our goal was to take away the run and make them throw it over the top of us. Unfortunately, their quarterback is just a great player and beat us going around the edge a few times, and he scrambled and made some good throws.”

Wollan found much to be encouraged by from his team’s performance against the defending league champions.

“There’s going to be a lot of positives out of this,” he said. “Edmonds-Woodway is one of the best teams in the state. To come in and compete like we did … we’ll be able to rally back.”