Credit: Woodinville Football
Dan Baerwald
SAMMAMISH, WA – Despite holding a lead into the fourth quarter In a close battle between the last two undefeated teams in KingCo, the Woodinville Falcons suffered their first loss of the season at Eastlake High School, falling 28-18 to the Wolves.
It was a close game throughout, with Woodinville leading at the end of the first and third quarters, until a late flurry of rushing touchdowns helped Eastlake pull away late.
Offensively, Woodinville put together three solid scoring drives and totaled 257 yards, led by Levi Grothen, who finished the game 16-34 for 172 yards and 1 touchdown, a 12-yard strike to Ryan Bowles. Chase Rudin added 81 yards rushing on 26 carries and a 1-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, while Casey Larson and Adrian Calozza also made contributions to the run game, adding 9 yards and a third quarter touchdown by Larson, who led the Woodinville receiver corps with 4 catches for 66 yards. In addition, Rayan Salameh, Finley Bragg, and Ryan Bowles all finished with over 31 receiving yards,while Everett Ratliff and Adrian Calozza added catches. The offensive line skillfully protected Grothen in the passing game, with Sam Allyn, Tenzin Stull, Alex Wenzel, Alex Kromann, and Evan Gaylord holding the line firm for Woodinville.
On defense, Woodinville was feisty, holding a quality Eastlake team to just seven points in the first three quarters with some great tackling. Linebacker Ryan Bowles led the defense with 9.5 tackles, including one for loss, a sack, and a fumble forced. Many Woodinville players had multiple tackles, including linebacker Dylan Jewell, defensive backs Everett Ratliff, Sean Choquette, Casey Larson, Trevor Larson, Alex Torgeson, and Cooper Angellar, along with defensive linemen Gabe Porter and Adrian Torres. In addition, Makoa Peneku, Max Flack, Adrian Calozza, Aiden Ericson, also made contributions to the defensive effort.
On special teams, Finley Bragg had a perfect night, making his only field goal attempt of 30 yards in the first quarter and knocking through an extra point attempt, as well as booting multiple kickoffs to the back of the endzone. Levi Grothen had two pooch punts for a long of 39 yards, and Cadan Van De Wege also had two punts, with a long of 37 yards. In the return game, Casey Larson and Aidan Erickson totaled 40 yards.
All in all, Woodinville (4-1, 1-1 KingCo) hung tough with a very skilled Eastlake team (5-0, 3-0 KingCo) for the whole game, with a late touchdown for the Wolves extending the final score to a 10 point win. The Falcons came up with two well-executed touchdown drives at crucial points in the second half and held an Eastlake team known for their prowess in the passing game to just 129 yards through the air.
Woodinville will have a long week to prepare for their next game, another key KingCo conference matchup against the Mount Si Wildcats (4-1, 2-1 KingCo) in a 1 o’clock home kickoff at Pop Keeney on Saturday, October 7th.