Photo taken by Hunter Darnall
Dan Baerwald
BOTHELL, WA – The Woodinville Falcons found themselves in the loss column on Saturday for the second week straight, falling by a score of 24-7 to the Mount Si Wildcats at home in front of a diminished pinkout crowd at Pop Keeney.
It was a brutal game for Woodinville (4-2, 1-2 KingCo), who struggled offensively and fell into an early hole following two short-field rushing touchdowns by Mount Si (5-1, 3-1 KingCo), who took advantage of 3 Woodinville turnovers.
Woodinville’s defense kept Mount Si within striking distance despite being on the field for nearly twice as long as the offense and facing a Mount Si team determined to run the ball at all costs. Woodinville held Mount Si to just 6 points in the second half and forced Mount Si to attempt 4 field goals. Once again, Ryan Bowles led the Woodinville defense with 10.5 tackles, but many others had a big game due to the volume of plays run by Mount Si. Players with contributions included Trevor Larson, Dylan Jewell, Jon Pacack, Casey Larson, Alex Torgeson, Gabe Porter, Aiden Erickson, Max Flack, Makoa Peneku, and Adrian Calozza, all with multiple tackles, Flack and Cooper Angellar each with a tackle for loss, and Nate Pickering, Everett Ratliff, and Bernard Moore all assisting in the tackling effort.
It was not all gloom and doom for the Woodinville offense, who had some bright spots, such as an athletic 19-yard touchdown pass from Levi Grothen to Ryan Bowles, when Grothen rolled way outside the pocket and delivered a beautiful on-the-run throw to the corner of the endzone, tying the game. Grothen finished the day 7 of 16 passing for 103 yards alongside his touchdown, while Chase Rudin led Woodinville with 9 carries for 20 yards rushing. Elsewhere, Everett Ratliff led the team in receiving with 2 catches for 49 yards, Casey Larson added 35 yards receiving and 3 yards rushing, and Bowles contributed the 19-yard touchdown discussed above.
Although featured little on special teams, Finley Bragg made his only extra point attempt and limited the kick return game for Mount Si with strong kickoffs. Cadan Van de Wege finished the day with 5 punts for 237 total yards, including one for a booming 56 yards in the second half. Ratliff set Woodinville up with good field position several times with 57 kick return yards and returns of 31 and 26 yards respectively.
Woodinville must bounce back quickly, as the next Falcons game is Friday, October 13th at Pop Keeney against the Bothell Cougars (5-1, 3-0 KingCo), one of the top teams in KingCo.