Medical Lake and Inchelium are a couple of down-to-earth communities whose high school football fortunes have soared sky high.
The Medical Lake Cardinals and Inchelium Hornets will be among 10 teams to play Saturday in the WIAA/U.S. Bank Kingbowl XV, the five-game festival of state high school football championships at the Kingdome in Seattle.
And when the two area teams splash down in the Land of Espresso, their fans won't need any of the high-octane coffee to act lively.
Medical Lake and Inchelium have backed their football teams through thick and thin and fan support has been overwhelming in the two communities this fall.
Especially because the thin years aren't so far back.
Medical Lake, which meets Lynden (11-2) in the Class A title game at 2:30, was 2-7 as recently as 1989. Last year's club wound up 7-3-1 with a trip to the state quarterfinals.
But the barriers to the top have been broken this fall as the Cardinals ended Colfax's five-year stranglehold on the Northeast A League championship with a 20-14 victory over Colfax. They head into the Dome 12-0 and with a No. 2 ranking from the final regular-season Associated Press prep football poll.
The Cardinals knocked off top-ranked Ephrata 19-14 in the semifinals last weekend.
Inchelium which opens the five-game Kingbowl slate against Pateros (11-0) in the eight-man championship at 9:30 a.m., is coming off successive 1-8 seasons.
The Hornets were also ranked No. 2 in the state at the end of the regular season and, like Medical Lake, knocked off the top-ranked team in the semifinals to head west at 11-0.
Inchelium won state in 1983, but even that year the Hornets could not claim to be league champions, falling to Odessa 12-8.
The fans here follow you everywhere," Medical Lake coach John Giannandrea said, "and we've got some long hauls to some of our games."
Inchelium fans, likewise, have racked up the mileage to follow the Hornets everywhere from Odessa to Moscow, Idaho. Home games at Inchelium are a a real treat, with fans ringing the field in cars and pickup trucks and listening to a public address announcer who has been promising a halftime appearance by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders for years now.
Somehow, the Texas belles always seem to get stranded on the far side of the free ferry run that crosses the Columbia River between Gifford and Inchelium.
Saturday, at least, Inchelium fans can say they were in the same stadium where professional football cheerleaders perform, if a day early.
The Hornets have been sparked to the upper reaches of prep football by the arrival of senior cousins Eti Ena and Aifala Ama. The muscular duo have helped Inchelium not only with big plays on offense and defense, but have also taken the pressure off quarterback Mike Heath and end Duke Finley. Opponents used to be able to beat up on Heath, especially, and trip up the Hornet offense.
But Ama, at 6-foot-1, 240 pounds has packed the ball 153 times for the Hornets, racking up 1,559 yards and scoring 21 touchdowns — seven in two playoff games.
Ena (6-0, 220), was the team leader in tackles during hte regular season, with 73 from his middle linebacker spot. Both cousins have made bone-rattling tackles of highlight-film caliber.
In Pateros, the Hornets face a quick and explosive club that is not afraid to try any formation or any quirky play.
The Billygoats, who lost in the 1989 semifinals, are in the Kingbowl for the first time. Pateros has steamrolled in the playoffs, ousting physical Davenport 36-6 and speedy Taholah 66-18.
The Billygoats are led by Derek Hunter at quarterback and Aaron Hagenbuch at running back. Class B distance running champion Tyrone Minnis is a threat at receiver.
"They're a well-balanced team," said first-year Inchelium head coach Ron Washington. "We saw them play Hunters earlier in the year and — this is back in September — my assistant Tom Berg said, 'They're the second-best team in the state.'
"Maybe his prediction will come true."
Speaking of predictions, Washington was a first-year assistant coach at Inchelium in 1983, when the Hornets won state. Will the magic come back in his first year as head coach?
Lynden coach Curt Kramme is also a first-year head man with previous experience int he Kingbowl. He quarterbacked Blaine to the 1978 Class A state championship.
Kramme sees a Medical Lake squad with the quickness to match his own Lions.
Scott Noteboom, a 6-foot, 165-pound junior, leads the Lynden power I with nearly 1,500 yards.
Medical Lake tailback Guy Morris powers the Cardinal offense with 1,430 yards and 27 touchdowns.
"A big part of our offense is getting to the corner first," Kramme said. "We're very concerned about (Medical Lake's) speed, they seem to pursue well on defense."
If the Lions are forced to pass, they have a larget target in the 6-8, 255-pound tight end Chad Baar. Baar was center on Lynden's Class A state champion basketball team last winter.
"We like to establish the run," Kramme said. "I never was a student of the passing game."
Wait a minute? Didn't we just read he was Blaine's quarterback?
"I was an option quarterback," he said. "When I played in the Kingbowl I did not throw a pass."
Published in the Spokesman-Review.
No comments:
Post a Comment