Edmonds-Woodway scored the first 24 and the last 42 points of Friday’s varsity football game, rolling to a 66-7 victory on the road against Shorecrest. Five different Warriors saw the end zone including Chantz Justice three times and back-up QB Isaac Jackson twice.
“They’re a 2A team, but I thought early on they put up a good fight,” said Coach John Gradwohl
Nick Morales passed for over 200 yards on eight attempts, all in the first half, including touchdown passes to Jalen Nash, Josh Gradwohl and Justice. “We had to throw in the beginning to try and soften them up,” said Gradwohl. “They did a good job at the outset slowing our run.”
Justice led a rushing attack that saw six different Warriors go for a combined 237 including touchdown runs of 1, 3, 6, 6,11 and 21 yards. “We started out a little slow,” said Justice, “but once we started getting on a roll things went real good.”
Shorecrest won the toss, but elected to kick-off to the Warriors. After Nash returned the kick to the 35, E-W quickly moved into Shorecrest territory following a 2nd down pass for 28 yards from Morales to Hohengarten. Justice ran the ball several times but the Warriors failed to get into the end zone, instead taking an early 3-0 lead on Ebrima Fatty’s 24-yard field goal.
After the Scots managed a first down on their opening drive, they stalled and were forced to punt. Morales found Nash on a 65-yard pass over the middle and just like that it was 10-0.
Shorecrest took over and again started to move the ball but Tyler Rheinford had his first of three sacks on the night, putting the Scots in a punting situation. On the ensuing possession, the Warriors followed a short Justice run with a 52-yard pass to Josh Gradwohl, and just before the first quarter expired it was 17-0.
After three downs, Shorecrest was again forced to punt. This time it was the Justice show as the Warriors started their drive from their own 41 and Justice ran for 5, 16, 5 and 4 yards before Morales found Hohengarten on an 11-yard pass to move the ball to the Scots 18. Justice then ran for 7 before finishing the drive on an 11-yard toss sweep that saw him bowl over the last defender at the goal line. “Our O-line just figured it out. Big holes, small holes. They were great,” said Justice.
After Shorecrest again went three and out, the Warriors fumbled and put the Scots in scoring position. Jack Koss found Brantle Harris on a 34-yard pass to the E-W 1-yard line, one of only two completed passes the defense would allow. On the next play, Marqus Osborn ran it in for the Scots’ only score of the night.
The Warriors started their next drive with 3:30 left in the first half and it looked like the score would remain the same as E-W failed to get a first down and punted the ball back to the Scots. On Shorecrest’s first play, a 9-yard pass, the Scots fumbled and Nick Venema recovered for the Warriors. “I thought Nick did a good job tonight, both on defense and on the few runs he had on offense,” said Gradwohl.
The Warriors had a little over 1:30 left and quickly went to work, first with a sideline pass to Gradwohl. After a sack on Morales pushed the Warriors back to their own 48, Morales found Nash on a 18 yarder to the Scot 34. With nine seconds left, Justice left the backfield and ran a wheel route to the right and Morales found him for a touchdown just before halftime. “The coaches saw that on the fake no one was going out with me, so they just called a great play,” said Justice.
In the second half, the Warriors played three different quarterbacks. The first to go in was Jackson, who would run for two touchdowns, the first of which followed a long drive featuring seven runs for 46 yards from Rheinford. Jackson ran a naked bootleg 17 yards and the score. His second came from 1 yard out on a drive that included several runs from Greyson Fisher and a 14-yard run from Henry Tillman.
The defense, as it had done all night, got the ball back quickly to the Warriors. Kameron Krall came in on the next series and the Warriors, using a short field, scored their eighth touhdown of the night on a 21-yard run from Fisher.
After the Scots fumbled the kick-off, Tillman scored two plays later on a 6-yard run to complete the scoring on the night.
The victory puts the Warriors (3-3) in a position to make the playoffs if they win their final two games. Next up is Shorewood, back at Shoreline stadium. “They’re getting better, just like us. Should be a heckuva football game. “ said Coach Gradwohl.
Warriors 17 14 14 21 66
Scots 0 7 0 0 7
1st quarter
E-6:09 Ebrima Fatty 24 yard FG
E-3:47 Jalen Nash 65 yard pass from Nick Morales(Fatty kick)
E- :14 Josh Gradwohl 52 yard pass from Morales (Fatty kick)
2nd quarter
E-8:45 Chantz Justice 11 yard run (Fatty kick)
S-3:49 Marqus Osborn 1 yard run (Ian Prieve kick)
E- :02 Justice 34 yard pass from Morales (Fatty kick)
3rd quarter
E-10:32 Justice 3 yard run (Fatty kick)
E-2:59 Isaac Jackson 6 yard run (Fatty kick)
4th quarter
E-9:55 Jackson 1 yard run (Fatty kick)
E-6:25 Henry Tillman 21 yard run (Fatty kick)
E- 4:38 Greyson Fisher 6 yard run (Fatty kick)
— By Jeff Smarr
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