NEXT STOP...STATE PLAYOFFS!

I love the smell of football on a crisp fall Friday. The Wolves of Eastlake came to play and they showed it. With the sting of the KingCo Championship in the rear-view mirror, the Wolves were hungry for redemption against the Sumner Spartans. This game had a little bit of everything, and the boys stepped up to the challenge.

1st Quarter

The Wolves won the coin flip and elected to kickoff and Ryan Curran started it off with a booming 52-yard kick and the Wolves special teams combo of Michael Lester and Cooper Williams, stopping the return man for a short 10-yard return. The first drive for the Spartans did not end well with an interception by the ever-aware Chris Knutson off a deflection by Trent Nicholson to give the Wolves offense on the Spartans’ 46-yard line. With a combination of rushes and passes, the Wolves capitalized on a wide-open Joey Grzetic catch from Grady Robison. The Wolves defense proved their prowess by stopping the Spartans and making them punt the ball. The Wolves offense dinked and dunked to drive the ball down to the Spartans’ 17-yard line and capped it off with a 17-yard catch and run by Garret Carney to blow past 4 defenders. Gotta give a shout out to the boys on the line for giving Grady and other skill players the time and holes to make the plays they were able to make. 14-0 Wolves.

2nd Quarter

The 2nd quarter did not start well for the Spartans. After they returned the kickoff for a decent return to start on their own 42-yard line, they fumbled the ball on their second possession as the always cognizant Garret Carney not only caused the fumble, but also jumped on it to take possession for the Wolves. The Wolves did not waste any time. On the second play after the fumble recovery, Grady Robison threw a beautiful pass to a wide-open Joey Grzetic who ran and juked his way into the endzone. The next few series went back and forth with everything that could happen, happening, including a missed field goal by Sumner, an 80 yard TD by Sumner, a ferocious sack by Jacob Allen, a 28 yard field goal by the sure-footed Ryan Curran and capped off by a blocked punt by Trent Nicholson which was scooped up by Cooper Williams for a TD. Things were looking good for the Wolves heading into the second half. 31-7 Wolves.

3rd Quarter

The second half was all about the defense, with the exception of one drive by the Wolves, where Grady Robison scrambled for 19 yards to get the Wolves to the 12 yard line of Sumner and few plays later, Garrett Carney was able to rumble in for a 1 yard score. Besides that, lone offensive series, lots of short passes mixed in with runs here and there on both sides, until a long pass by the Sumner QB to his wideout was intercepted by Leroy Jackson, who fought hard with the receiver all the way to the ground. But, at the end of the play, Leroy had literally ripped the ball out of the receiver’s hands to give ball to the Wolves heading into the 4th quarter. 38-7 Wolves.

4th Quarter

Just when you thought the game was over, the Sumner Spartans wanted to make it at least a little interesting with a couple of touchdowns of their own. Throw in a 2-point conversion for fun. But in the end, the Eastlake Wolves had too much of a lead for the Spartans to try to overcome. Although the Wolves didn’t score in the 4th quarter, Trent Nicholson had an interception and return for 25 yards, a nice combo sack by Jake O’Donnell and Sam Coomes and a nice outing by some Sophomores, Parker Barrysmith and Michael “Borghi Jr” Lester. Wolves win 38-22.

Now that that’s outta the way. One down, four more to go. I told you, last time we lost, 7 straight wins. Just saying...

Let’s go Wolves! #WSPS

Special thanks to…

• Game Story Writer: Kenny Kim

• Statistician: John Miller

• Spotters: Jonathan Allen & Eric Bryant

• Photographer: Chad Greene