Warriors romp past Scots

SHORELINE — Shorecrest football coach Mike Wollan knew what his team was up against when they took on Edmonds-Woodway last week.

Last year, the Scots beat the Warriors 10-3 in a defensive struggle and went on to share the Western Conference South Division title with them.

But the day prior to this year’s showdown in week three, Wollan called the Warriors “one of the most talented Edmonds teams at all skill positions. You take one thing away and they can hurt you in different ways.”

The Warriors did exactly that to the Scots.

Time after time, Edmonds-Woodway running back Josh Heard and quarterback Kyle McCartney found ways to slice up the Scots’ defense in a 28-7 win Sept. 15 at Shoreline Stadium.

Heard, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound load, rushed for two touchdowns, including a 72-yard run in the second quarter. He led the Warriors with 168 yards on 18 carries.

McCartney threw for two touchdowns and completed 13 of 20 passes for 230 yards.

For over a quarter and a half Shorecrest (1-2) kept pace with the Warriors (3-0), who came into the game ranked seventh in WashingtonPreps.com’s Class 4A state poll.

Then the Warriors rolled the dice a bit to break a 0-0 tie.

Facing a fourth-and-one at the Shorecrest 35-yard line, McCartney faked a handoff and found tight end Casey Hamlett wide open in the middle of the field with 4:17 left in the first half.

The Warriors expected the Scots to key on Heard in a short yardage situation, so they went with the pass.

“Coach (John Gradwohl) caught them by surprise,” Heard said.

Wollan said Hamlett got inside the coverage and McCartney made a good throw.

A few minutes later, Zach Houvener came down with the first of his two interceptions of Shorecrest quarterback Pierce Rankin at the 1-yard line. Three plays later, Heard atoned for an earlier fumble at the Shorecrest goal line when he busted loose over left tackle, racing 72 yards to the end zone with 50 seconds left in the half. Curtis Storer tacked on the extra point and Edmonds-Woodway went in the locker room with a 14-0 lead.

“After they scored those two touchdowns it seemed that everyone put their head down and was done,” Shorecrest co-captain Kevin Ramos said.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Shorecrest started to unravel.

Following the kickoff to Edmonds-Woodway, personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on Shorecrest gave the Warriors the ball on the Scots’ 39-yard line.

The Warriors failed to convert on fourth down, however, and the ball went over to the Scots.

After a three-and-out possession that included another personal foul penalty, the Scots had to punt from their own 19.

“Unfortunately we lost our composure a little bit and we paid a price for it,” Wollan said. “I got to take some of the responsibility on that. Some of the guys that were getting up, they know better. We’ll certainly talk about it. Can’t have that, period.”

Rankin, the punter, couldn’t handle a bad snap and barely managed to kick the ball away while sliding on the stadium’s new turf. The Warriors got the ball on the 2-yard line and Heard powered in two plays later to give Edmonds-Woodway a 21-0 lead with Storer’s extra point.

Edmonds-Woodway added another touchdown when receiver Antoine Wafer outleaped cornerback Elliott Richards for the ball with 5:47 left in the game.

Shorecrest finally got on the board when Rankin found a wide open Riley Reynolds streaking down the left sideline for a 34-yard touchdown pass with 3:48 to play.

Six Edmonds-Woodway players carried the ball for a total of 253 yards and four receivers caught passes, led by Hamlett who caught four balls for 90 yards.

“I try to get everybody involved so the team has to think about everybody,” Gradwohl said. “Josh is obviously a stud, but if I can get them thinking about my receivers and tight ends and everybody else it makes Josh’s job easier.”

Gradwohl called the Warriors’ defense, which forced three turnovers and held the Scots scoreless until their final drive, “stellar.”

“Every week you set new goals and this week, was ‘finish,’” Gradwohl said. “Last week (a 34-33 win over Mariner) we played a pretty good game, but we didn’t finish the game. Our goal this week was to finish the game. I’m so proud of our kids for buying into it and doing it.”

Edmonds-Woodway faces Lynnwood (0-3) at 8 p.m. tonight at Edmonds Stadium. Shorecrest plays Jackson at Everett Memorial Stadium at 5 p.m.

Wollan said part of the Scots’ struggles on offense was the inability to run the right pass routes and that’s something that will need to improve as well as time of possession.

“We need to control the ball offensively. I think when you play a team like Jackson or a team like Edmonds, that the way you help your defense out is to keep the ball and sustain some drives offensively,” he said. “We had some of those tonight, but it seems like we always got bit by something. We had guys making plays when nothing was there and we executed a few plays pretty good. We showed a few different looks tonight.

“We’re still searching for an identity as an offensive team. With the personnel we have, we need to continue to improve and figure out what that identity is,” Wollan said.