Henry Woods ran for four touchdowns and 133 yards as Archbishop Murphy won its homecoming game 47-20 over Lakewood.
The Wildcats improved to 3-0 in Cascade Conference play and 5-0 overall going into tonight’s game at Sultan.
Despite the win, coach Rick Stubrud, who accepted head coaching duties when his brother-in-law, coaching legend Terry Ennis, died of cancer last month, said it “probably was not one of the better efforts.”
Mental mistakes, penalties and disappointing execution marked an otherwise good win for the Wildcats, he said.
The Wildcats lost two fumbles and were penalized six times for 65 yards in the Sept. 28 contest. The penalties included false starts and personal fouls, the latter of which were a result of a lack of hustle, he said.
Archbishop Murphy’s rushing attack proceeded with “starts and stops”, Stubrud said, but still produced seven touchdowns and 431 yards on 66 carries.
“We moved it, but Lakewood did do some things,” Stubrud said.
The basic running plays proved to be effective with Woods and Russel Stiegler (115 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown) leading the way.
“The dive seemed to work real well for us,” Stubrud said.
The Wildcats scored first on a 26-yard run by Tyler Allen but Lakewood cut the lead to 7-6 when Jordan Stauffer caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Jay Wettlaufer.
Then it was Woods’ turn to shine. The senior running back scored twice on runs of 3 yards to give Archbishop Murphy a 21-6 halftime lead after Ian Houts’ extra points.
In the third quarter Woods added touchdown runs of 2 and 5 yards to put Lakewood up 34-6. Stiegler and Nathan Wirtz added touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.
The defense played “pretty well” against Lakewood’s spread offense, Stubrud said, but gave up 190 yards passing and two passing touchdowns.
The Wildcats hit well, Stubrud said, but need to do a better job tackling out in space.
Stubrud said the Wildcats are still adjusting to having a new coach in place of Ennis, making note of the “intangibles” that Ennis, who started the program at Archbishop Murphy, brought to the job.
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