Going into last Friday night’s game with the Bellevue Wolverines, the Mount Si Wildcats were being looked at by some as possibly being just as strong a football team this season as the Wolverines. As Wildcat football fans have seen over the years, though, there is no under-estimating how good this Bellevue team is year in and year out, and this year is no exception.
Senior running back Loka Kanongataa scored two touchdowns on long runs, and fellow senior quarterback Eric Block scored on a long touchdown run of his own as the Wolverines made quick work of Mount Si, 31-7, in front of a large crowd at Bellevue High School.
Kanongataa didn’t take all the credit for his two big TDs.
“Just linemen, linemen and good blocks. I just follow whoever’s blocking for me. Good fake by my fullback, it’s pretty much not on me, it’s on my linemen. I just run through the holes I see,” Kanongataa said.
Mount Si coach Charlie Kinnune credited Bellevue.
“They have a really good defense. They came out really well on offense, too. That’s a team that made huge improvements in one week.” Kinnune said.
The Wolverines held the Wildcats scoreless until midway through the final quarter, when star running back Brandon Yakaboski scored his lone touchdown of the game. Bellevue also did a nice job, for the most part, of shutting down Yakaboski; despite that, his effort was still respectable.
It did not take long for the Wolverines to make their statement. On the first offensive play from scrimmage by Bellevue after their defense forced the Wildcats to go three-and-out on the opening possession of the game, Kanongataa broke away from the defense for a 62-yard touchdown run. Just before the end of the quarter, the Wolverines went into their bag of tricks and faked a punt; the play was successful, and that set up a 10-yard second-quarter touchdown run by senior running back Ladell Carroll, who also gave the Wildcat defense some trouble in the game. With Bellevue up 14-0 just before halftime senior Doug Harrell kicked a 46-yard field goal to send the Wolverines into the intermission at 17-0.
Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff has confidence in his kicker.
“In warm-ups he hit two from 50 and they barely got there,” Goncharoff said. “That was a great kick by him.”
It didn’t take long after the third quarter started for the big play to strike again; this time it was Block’s run, an 81-yard scamper into the end zone, and that put the Wolverines up 24-0.
It stayed this way until the fourth quarter, when Kanongataa once again ran away from the Mount Si defense, gaining 68 yards for his second touchdown of the contest. On the next Wildcat possession, Yakaboski started it with a long 45 yard run, then ended it with his lone touchdown, a one-yard run into the end zone with 6:52 left in the game. By then, though, it was pretty much known who was boss on this night, and the boss wasn’t wearing scarlet and gray.
Quality control, primarily in the form of false start and holding penalties against the Wolverines, continued to be a problem for them in the game. This is something that affected them last season as well, but Goncharoff said they can be cleaned up. “They’re correctable and I can live with the correctable mistakes, if we can correct them,” Goncharoff said.
This week, the Wildcats return home to host Mercer Island. The Islanders were drilled last week by Skyline 45-7. Kinnune knows his team will have to improve in order to rebound from this defeat.
“We have to improve our pursuit angles and we just have to get a lot better this week. Mercer Island comes to town and they’re an awful good team,” the longtime coach said.
