Wildcats secure No. 2 Kingco seed
Published 7:39 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
It was not pretty at times, but the Mount Si Wildcat football team got the job done and now, the Valley will see a home playoff game as a result.
On homecoming night last Friday, Oct. 20, Mount Si’s Brandon Yakaboski ran for two touchdowns and Marshall Griffin added another as the Wildcats took advantage of Liberty turnovers while overcoming their own in a 24-0 shutout win over the Patriots. The victory avenged last season’s loss to Liberty.
It was a turnover by the Patriots that set up the first Mount Si scoring drive. After solid runs by Yakaboski and Dan Reeves, Griffin ran the ball in from 13 yards out with 8:21 left in the first quarter to put the Wildcats on the board, leading 7-0. “It felt pretty good. I knew I was going to get it because of the way the defense was lined up and I just figured if I ran as far as I could, that I’d be able to do it. It felt good,” Griffin said. Liberty turned the ball over on each of their first three possessions; they finished with a total of six turnovers.
Mount Si turned the ball over four times. “We were a little sloppy. We had four or five center exchange problems and that was really an issue,” said Wildcat coach Charlie Kinnune. There were some reasons for the turnovers. “We had a new ball out there tonight. It was real slick; we didn’t realize how bad it was until two messed up snaps, but we had a bad week of practice and it shows sometimes,” Yakaboski said. Kinnune is looking for improvement in this area this week. “We have some things to clean up, but we know exactly what we have to do and so we’ll do that,” the coach said.
That third turnover for the Patriots set up the second Mount Si scoring drive. On a first and 15 from the Liberty 26-yard line, Yakaboski busted it into the end zone for his first touchdown of the game and with 2:16 left in the opening stanza, the Wildcats were up 14-0 and on their way.
The lone scoring drive of the second quarter came as a result of a strong 18-play drive (one of the plays, a Reeves’ touchdown run, was called back on penalty) as Gibson Bardsley kicked a 28-yard field goal with 5:14 left in the frame to put Mount Si up 17-0, which was the halftime score.
After a superb halftime ceremony in which the homecoming court was announced, the third quarter was more of the same. After Liberty turned the ball over again for the fourth time, it didn’t take long for Yakaboski to hit the end zone; just one play.
The senior broke several Patriot tackles and showed the Liberty defense who was boss as he ran from 44 yards out for his second touchdown of the night. With 7:42 left in the third, the Wildcats were up 24-0. Liberty gave it one last chance late in the final stanza to break the shutout, but turned the ball over on downs after the Mount Si defense stuffed the Patriots’ ground game.
Yakaboski said that the team was fired up to play. “We had a bad week of practice so we tried to pick it up and get real motivated to come out here and beat these guys,” said the running back.
The win clinched for the Wildcats the No. 2 Kingco seed into the state 3A preliminary playoff round, which means a home game Nov. 3 or 4 against the Greater St. Helens League’s No. 2 team, likely the Kelso Hilanders from Cowlitz County. Coming into this week, the Hilanders are 6-2 after losing to first-place Camas last week.
Mount Si and Kelso have recent state tournament history together. Last spring, the Wildcats’ softball team used two straight doubles early and strong pitching from then-senior Kandis Clesson to post a 1-0 upset of the Hilanders in the first round of the state softball tournament in Tacoma.
First there is the business of wrapping up the league schedule this week at home against the winless Interlake Saints. Kickoff Friday night is 7:30 p.m.
