The EMAK Report King s 21 L. C. 7 King s takes first seed to state Photo by Dianna Roach November 11, 2015
The EMAK Report The EMAK Report: Volume 6 Issue 10 K I N G S H I G H S C H O O L F O O T B A L L B U I L D I N G C H A M P I O N S W H I L E P U R S U I N G C H A M P I O N S H I P S November 11, 2015 Knights defense preserves District One victory Knights by the numbers 264 YARDS TOTAL OFFENSE 130 RUSHING YARDS ANDREW CLINE 18 CARRIES, 78 RUSHING YARDS KOA WILKINS 10/11/0, 134 YARDS, 1 TOUCHDOWN BEN HERMES 11 TACKLES JAKE WELCH 3 RECEPTIONS, 103 YARDS, 1 TOUCHDOWN, 9 TACKLES Photo by Dianna Roach COOPER WRIGHT 9 TACKLES, 1 INTERCEPTION FOR TOUCHDOWN DUNCAN CULL 3 SACKS Midway in the fourth quarter, Taylor Schoenfeld sacked Lyncs quarterback Colby Flint for an eight yard loss forcing a punt. Following the punt, the Knights were able to run out the clock. TAYLOR SCHOENFELD 2 SACKS Defense limits L.C. to 8 yards rushing, 7 points in 2nd half. By Sam Roach At Woolsey Stadium last Friday Night, the King s Knights jumped out to a three touchdown lead, 21-0 at halftime and then held on for a 21-7 District One victory over Lynden Christian. With the win, the Knights claimed the top seed from District One going into the State Tournament. King s got on the scoreboard midway through the first quarter when senior linebacker Cooper Wright intercepted a Lync s pass in the flat and raced untouched 84 yards into the end zone. Jack Van Dyke added the extra point to give the Knights a 7-0 lead. King s scored twice in the second quarter, the first on a two yard Caleb Perry run and the second time on an 82 yard scoring strike from Koa Wilkins to Jake Welch. Wilkins, in his first game back since suffering a broken collarbone in the season opener, completed five of eleven passes for 134 yards and one touchdown. Welch led all receivers from both teams with three receptions for 103 yards. In the second half the Knights relied on their defense to preserve the win. In the third quarter, in spite of playing with their backs to their own end zone, the Knights defense yielded only eight rushing yards and held Lynden Christian out of the end zone until the Lync s quarterback Colby Flint hit wide receiver Nate Hielkema for twenty five yards and Lynden Christian s only touchdown of the game. According to Defensive Coordinator Kyle Wilkins, the key drive that sealed the win came in the fourth quarter when Lynden Christian was driving and King s defense stepped up big, forcing the Lyncs to punt, sealing the win. Leading the Knights defensively were Ben Hermes with eleven tackles, Wright and Welch with nine tackles each. In addition, defensive linemen Duncan Cull and Taylor Schoenfeld had three sacks and two sacks respectively and Ed Sundquist recorded three solo tackles. With the win, King s record improved to 9-1 overall. The Knights next game will be this Friday night at Woolsey Stadium against undefeated Port Townsend from District Three. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The EMAK Report: The Photo Gallery
The EMAK Report The Scoring Line: King s 21 - Lynden Christian 7 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th Total King s 7 14 0 0 21 Cedar Park 0 0 7 0 7 Scoring Summary K Cooper Wright 84 yard interception (Jack Van Dyke kick) K Caleb Perry 2 yard run (Van Dyke kick) K Jake Welch 82 yard pass from Koa Wilkins (Van Dyke kick) LC Nate Hielkema 25 yard pass from Colby Flint. (Jake Poag kick) Game Stats for November 6, 2015 vs Lynden Christian Team: King's LC Rushing 130 58 Passing 134 91 Total 264 149 Comp 5/11/0 7/14/1 1st Downs 11 9 Punt Ave. 4/34 7/28 Fumbles/lost 1/1 0 Penalties 3/35 yds. 0 Inside the Huddle: Friday was game 1 of the Second Season By Sam Roach Last Friday night s game was definitely a Second Season game. The Second Season is what the playoffs are referred to in football locker room at King s High School. It s called that because even though the game is the same, the season is quite different. For starters, the competition is much improved over the regular season. To get to the Second Season a team has to be good. Generally, the teams playing in the Second Season have won more games than they ve lost and they ve earned the right to be there. King s came into that game at 8-1 and Lynden Christian came in at 5-4. Both teams qualified to get there in their respective leagues. To put it bluntly, both teams knew how to win and both teams expected to win last Friday. There s also this sense of urgency in the Second Season that you don t see in the regular season but was there Friday. It made sense. The stakes were higher. It was win and you get to play another week and if you lose, the season was over. For half of the seniors on that field, that game would be the last football game they would ever play in their life. None of them wanted that, so they played harder.they played smarter. Friday night there was very few penalties and officially, only two turnovers. And the game was not decided until midway through the 4th quarter. There was no we ll get em next time, for the losing team and both teams played like they understood that. Another characteristic of the games played in the Second Season is that the defenses are often called upon to win the game. This was especially true for King s. Throughout much of the game, the Knights defense was playing backed up in their own end of the field. In the first quarter, following a mistake on a punt that gave Lynden Christian the ball on the Knights 20. King s defense had to make a choice whether to go through the motions and concede a score or whether to find a way to keep Lynden Christian out of the end zone. They chose the latter. Atley Shapiro pressured the Lynden Christian quarterback to throw and ill advised pass and Cooper Wright turned that pass into a pick six. In the regular season, the odds are pretty good that in most games, the offense will score in that situation. This wasn t the regular season though. This was the Second Season and nothing s guaranteed because the teams are better. And, in each round, the teams just keep improving. The most telling characteristic of games played in the Second Season, and this was especially evident last Friday night, is how teams, even though they may fall behind, simply refuse to quit. Maybe it s because they know how to win, maybe it s because of the finality of losing or maybe it s because they re simply better than the teams that didn t qualify, but teams playing in the Second Season are much less apt to quit until the time on the scoreboard clock reads 0:00. Last Friday night, King s took a 21 point lead into the locker room at half time. At that point, during the regular season, many teams are finished. Lynden Christian wasn t. In the second half they came back out onto the field and made a game of it. They forced King s to punt on their first offensive possession. They played the entire quarter on King s end of the field and they forced the Knights defense to make play after play in order to preserve a win. Their persistence paid off too. They got a score with three seconds remaining in the third quarter. Granted, in the
The EMAK Report Inside the Huddle: Friday was game 1 of the Second Season (continued) end, King s defense was up to the challenge and that one touchdown was all that Lynden Christian would get, but the point remains. Most teams in the regular season that find them selves down by 21 points at half time end up losing by 30 or 40 points. Not in the Second Season however, in the Second Season, teams are required to play 48 minutes because there s no such thing as a safe lead. That was certainly the case last Friday night and that game wasn t over until King s defense produced two sacks to force a punt and the offense had to grind out three first downs to run out the clock. An often overlooked characteristic of teams that play in the Second Season is their depth and their ability to play through pain. Fact, football is a contact sport, injuries happen and there s no such thing as a team playing in the Second Season that is 100% healthy. There just isn t. By the time Week 10 of the season rolls around, everyone is bruised and everyone has lost someone to injury. For Lynden Christian, junior quarterback Colby Flint was not the starter. For most of the season, Flint was the back up however, when the starter went down with a shoulder injury, he was the next man up. It was the same situation with King s. They had several players who were dinged up. Several played either only on offense or only on defense because of their injuries. King s leading tackler with eleven tackles last Friday night was linebacker Ben Hermes. That a linebacker, even one who might be considered undersized like Hermes, would lead the team in tackles is not unusual but here s the thing. Linebacker is not Hermes natural position, strong safety is. He s played linebacker since Week 6 because Jackson Whitaker injured his knee against Sultan. That s what the games that are played in the Second Season are like though. Players are moved around into different positions and in some cases backups become starters. That s just the way it is in the Second Season. Another characteristic of the teams playing in the Second Season, and this was definitely the case last Friday night on the Knights roster, was how many players who began the season as junior varsity players have played their way onto the field and have carved a niche for themselves in certain situations. On the kickoff team, for example, Johnny Chen, Jace Fransen, Camden Hauck and Blake Dornay, players who saw more snaps in the junior varsity games than they did in the varsity games this season, all found themselves playing on special teams last Friday. In addition, when the Knights went into a two tight end formation, Dornay was the player whose number was called. That s life in the Second Season though, and it s one of the more enjoyable things about it actually. Players who ten weeks earlier were not good enough to play in a varsity game have improved to the point that they are playing in varsity games. The final aspect of the Second Season that came into play Friday night happened in the fourth quarter between the coaching staffs. Would Kings punt on 4 and 4 or not? In a process that almost resembled a chess match Lynden Christian burned two timeouts before King s finally punted. Even for the coaches, there was no room for mistakes. In retrospect, Friday night was different from the other games in the 2015 season. It makes sense though. By Week 10, the teams are better and the stakes are higher. Fans should expect it. After all, it s the Second Season.
The EMAK Report: The Photo Gallery
The EMAK Report: The Photo Gallery
The EMAK Report: Standings, Schedules, and Results Cascade Conference Standings League Over-all W L W L ATM 7 0 10 0 King s 6 1 9 1 Lakewood 5 2 6 5 Cedarcrest 4 3 6 4 Cedar Park Chr. 3 4 5 5 Sultan 2 5 2 8 Granite Falls 1 6 1 9 South Whidbey 0 7 1 9 Around the Conference ATM beat Burlington Ed. 30-7 Next week vs. Black Hills Cedarcrest beat Sehome 24-13 Cedar Park Chr. Lost to Meridian 6-42 Granite Falls lost to Bellingham 15-35 King s beat Lynden Christian 21-7 Next week vs. Port Townsend Lakewood lost to Squalicum 12-54 South Whidbey lost to Nooksack Val. 8-51 Sultan lost to Mount Baker 8-56 Varsity Schedule August 29 @ Meridian (Jamboree) Sept. 4 King s 21 Lynden 14 Sept. 11 King s 49 Lakeside 6 Sept. 18 King s 31 Cedarcrest 7 Sept. 25 King s 31 Lakewood 12 Oct. 2 King s 41 Sultan 14 Oct. 9 King s 49 S. W. 14 Oct. 16 King s 56 Granite Falls 27 Oct. 23 King s 7 ATM 49 Oct. 30 King s 38 CPC 14 Nov. 6 King s 21 LC 7 Nov. 13 vs. Port Townsend 1-A State Tournament Lakeside @ Zillah Connell @ Cashmere CWA @ Royal Eatonville @ Colville Port Townsend @ King s Meridian @ Hoquiam Mount Baker @ Kalama Montesano @ Cascade Chr. The EMAK Report is a weekly publication that covers King s High School football throughout the season. It is a free publication and is available via e-mail. To receive weekly PDF copies of the EMAK Report send your request to sroach@kingsschools.org.