Sultan’s Mann thwarts King’s

SULTAN — Man, oh, Mann, it’s Josh by gosh.

Sultan High School running back Josh Mann scored three first-half touchdowns Friday night to lead the host Turks to a 22-13 victory over the King’s Knights in Cascade Conference football action.

With the triumph in its conference opener, Sultan improved to 3-0 for the first time in coach Jim MacDicken’s memory.

“I know it hasn’t happened since we went up to 2A,” MacDicken said. “It’s been well over a decade.”

The chief catalyst was Mann, who rushed for 146 yards on 16 carries and recovered the first of the five fumbles King’s lost.

“Josh is a stud,” MacDicken said with a chuckle.

After King’s (0-1 in conference, 1-2 overall) drove the ball deep into Sultan territory on the opening series of the game, Mann recovered a fumble—the first of four the Knights coughed up in the opening half —at the Turks’ 14-yard line.

Three plays later, Mann took a handoff, got great blocking, shed a would-be tackler, broke outside and galloped free for an 81-yard touchdown.

“Our line, they just went crazy on that play,” Mann said.

Mann then caught a pass from Cody Morgan on the conversion play to give Sultan an 8-0 lead with the game barely four minutes old.

On its next possession, King’s, behind the running of Spencer Clark—who despite wearing a cast on his broken right hand rushed for 201 yards on 30 carries—again drove into Sultan territory. But a fumble— this one recovered by the Turks’ Cody Binge—gave Sultan the ball back at its own 23-yard line.

Sultan drove to the King’s 17-yard line, where Mann took a pitch from Sultan quarterback Beau Champeux, ran right, spun free from a host of defenders and dove across the goal line near the pylon to put Sultan up 14-0.

Early in the second quarter, Clark ran 13 yards to move King’s into Sultan territory for the third time in the first half. Three plays later, he streaked 43 yards for a touchdown, to bring King’s within 14-7 with 10:02 remaining in the first half.

The hard-running Clark—who shined on defense, primarily trading hard licks with Mann—already had the respect of his adversary coming into the contest.

“He doesn’t go down after the first hit,” Mann said. “We’ve been friends since seventh grade. I told him after the game he did a good job. He’s a hard runner, but he had a cast on his right hand and our defense just stuck him a lot.”

Mann caught a 16-yard pass from Champeux—who played despite a sprained ankle—to help Sultan to a 22-7 lead with just 42 seconds remaining in the first half.

MacDicken and Mann both credited a large portion of Sultan’s success to the outstanding line play of Richard Knudtson and Jeffery Hales. Knudtson had two tackles for a loss, recovered one fumble and forced another.

King’s got within 22-13 in the third quarter. Deep in its own territory, Sultan attempted a pass off a reverse, but the ball was picked off by the Knights’ Jake Lyon who rambled 10 yards for a touchdown. Lyon sparked the King’s defense throughout the game with two tackles for a loss and two fumble recoveries.