Day After Report: Week 2

Now, if I can stay awake long enough, I’ll get some Day After Report notes. Some of you might think I’m a little weird to be writing at 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning, but there is a method to my madness. You see, the NFL kicks off later this morning, and that means I’ll be busy from around 10 a.m. until 9 p.m., watching every minute I can. And while I’m at it, let me just say thank you to my wife for being such a fan, too. You do not know how lucky I am to have a wife who loves football. Seriously. I know some guys who actually have to do other things on Sundays. So sad.

Anyway, to the notes:

SKYVIEW 36, COEUR d’ALENE 34
The Storm rallied from an early 17-0 hole to beat the Vikings from Idaho.

Deadline issues: This game lasted a little more than three hours, and The Columbian has earlier deadlines on Saturdays than Fridays. That meant I had to write a story in a hurry. In fact, I did not have time to run down to the field to get quotes from the players.

So instead, after I filed my story from the press box at Kiggins Bowl, I jumped in my car and found some players at Skyview High School. Some of their comments can be seen in this report.

Also, with such a wild game between two teams that use the no-huddle offense, I was off on my stat sheet by a play in the first half. I think I found the miscue, but trust me, it was a tough game to chart. And I wasn’t alone. Another stat-keeper in the press box told me after the game that he thought he missed one or two plays. Hey, it happens. We do the best we can. I did chart every play, but getting that data to the stat sheet is where I might have missed something.  Anyway, I will go over every play, and if I find that the published stats to be way off, I’ll make sure to correct them for the online story.

Hello, Storm? Kickoff was at 7 p.m.: Coeur d’Alene kicked a field goal with 8:41 left in the first quarter, capping an 11-play drive to take a 3-0 lead. Less than three minutes later, it was 17-0 for the Vikings.

“That trip sure didn’t hurt them, did it,” Skyview coach Steve Kizer said. “They went 400-something miles, and they jumped on us.”

Coeur d’Alene’s Kyler Dunn returned a blocked a punt 26 yards to make it 10-0 with 7:52 to play in the first quarter. Then after a successful Skyview punt, the Vikings scored four plays later on a 52-yard pass from Chad Chalich to Colin Comack for a 17-0 lead at 5:49. 

Here come the Storm: Parker Henry got Skyview going in the right direction with his 35-yard touchdown run to make it 17-7 with 3:53 left in the opening quarter. After the Skyview defense held, Henry was at it again, this time scoring on a 12-yard run to make it 17-14 with :38 seconds to go in the period.

“It was like a punch in the face,” sophomore receiver Reiley Henderson said of the big deficit. “But when we first got that score, everyone got real excited and really started playing.”

Brand new game, right?

Well, the Vikings returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, making it 24-14 — 38 points in the first quarter.

Plenty of mistakes: Coeur d’Alene lost a fumble, threw three interceptions, and snapped the ball over the punter’s head, in and out of the end zone for a safety. And lost by two points. Ouch.

Skyview had a lot of miscues, too. Three players combined to throw five interceptions, the Storm had a punt blocked and returned for a score, and the Storm had a kickoff returned for a touchdown. Yeah, that’s an ouch, too, but at least the Storm can say they won.

“That makes us feel better,” said Skyview quarterback/linebacker Kieran McDonagh. “Imagine if we didn’t have those mistakes, how good it would have been.”

Good point.

“We know if we play our best and don’t have mental mistakes, we can beat any team,” defensive back Mo Morrison added.

“We battled back and overcame a lot,” Kizer said. “We made a lot more mistakes than a team should make in a game.”

This is why Ellis Henderson is so good: If you look at the stat sheet, you might think Ellis Henderson had an off night. One catch for three yards? One rush for no gain? And he didn’t even return any kicks/punts?

Well, there was a reason for that. It was clear that Coeur d’Alene’s strategy was to make sure Henderson did not get open, and no ball was to be kicked his way. 

That attention opened up opportunities for others — including younger brother Reiley Henderson, who had his first two varsity touchdowns. More importantly, Ellis refused to let what Coeur d’Alene was doing to him affect the way he played defense.

Henderson, a defensive back, had two tackles-for-loss. He defended several passes, forcing incompletions. He was knocking guys out of bounds when they came his way.

Oh, and he came up big time in the fourth quarter. Yeah, it looks like Skyview gave up 34 points and a lot of passing yards. But the defense held Coeur d’Alene scoreless on four drives in the fourth quarter. Ellis Henderson was huge in all of those stops.

A night of firsts: McDonagh, the back-up quarterback, came off the bench and threw his first touchdown passes in a Skyview uniform. And, as noted, Reiley Henderson caught two touchdown passes.

“I was really hoping I could get in there and prove myself,” McDonagh said. “I just kept going and going, and I ended up throwing three touchdowns.”

Reiley Henderson, a sophomore, said it was a little overwhelming at first, those first touchdowns.

The first came with less than a minute to go before halftime, a big score for the Storm to pull within three points at 24-21. 

The second touchdown turned out to be the game-winner. Although with 11:44 left in the fourth quarter, nobody knew at the time that it would be the last score. Oh, and credit receiver Karl Graves for his 34-yard reception to set up the 7-yard scoring toss from McDonagh to Reiley Henderson.

Fourth-down TD: The Storm, trailing by 10 midway through the third quarter, caught the Coeur d’Alene secondary sleeping on a fourth-down play. Of course, the secondary might have just figured the quarterback was sacked and stopped running.

McDonagh used a stiff arm to get away from a would-be sack, then threw off his back foot to a wide-open Graves, who caught the ball and waltzed into the end zone for a 30-yard TD to make it 31-28.

“I’m just glad I didn’t get sacked,” McDonagh said.

More for Mo: First off, let’s just say this … Mo Morrison is one of the coolest names in Southwest Washington. 

Oh, and he’s pretty good, too.

Morrison ended Coeur d’Alene’s final two drives with interceptions, the last coming at the Skyview 10-yard line with 43 seconds remaining.

“I just tried to make a play on the first one,” he said. “On the second one, I was really concentrating on catching the ball. That’s why I fell to my knees.”

He made sure he had it, and that ensured a Skyview victory.

“My teammates were so excited,” he said.

Morrison said that by halftime, the Storm knew they could complete the comeback. 

“We wanted to make a statement that we are one of the top teams in Washington, one of the top teams in the Northwest,” he said.

The Smurf look: Long after the game, Parker Henry was seen with a bunch of blue on his neck and cheek. 

“You know the (fans) with the paint on their faces? They hugged me,” Henry explained.

Good to know.

UNION 38, ENUMCLAW 7
The Titans showed considerable improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 and took care of business.

Hyphen-hyphen: The Union backfield consists of two hyphenated names, and I’m just hoping I don’t mix them up one day. You know, like sayin’ Brandon Humphrey-Butler or Kaben Brody-Heim.

Nope, it’s quarterback Kaben Humphrey-Butler, and running back Brandon Brody-Heim.

And it looks like all of us will have to get used to those names.

Brody-Heim rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns. Humphrey-Butler won his debut as a starting quarterback, throwing for 116 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 59 yards and another score.

A good week: Union stayed close with perennial power Bellevue last week, but ultimately lost by two touchdowns.

This week, the offense got going and the defense was downright nasty, especially in the first half.

First, the offense. Brody-Heim led a rushing attack that gained 271 yards. Zak Browning rushed for 61 yards and also had a touchdown.

“A team’s biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2,” Brody-Heim said. “We practiced very hard this week, and obviously it showed.”

The Union defense held Enumclaw to 51 yards in the first half, allowing the Titans to take a 21-0 lead.

Key series: While it turned into a blowout, this game was close early in the second quarter. Up 7-0, the Titans turned the ball over to Enumclaw, in Union territory.

The Hornets, though, would go three-and-out and punt from the 41-yard line. Defenders Josh Reynolds and Bryson Page each made big plays in that series.

“We made it a little harder on ourselves,” Union coach Cale Piland said of the turnover, adding that it could have led to a big letdown for his squad. “The positive thing is … we didn’t get caught up in that.”

Instead, the defense stepped up, got the ball back to the offense, and the Titans rolled from there.

Nice debut: Kaben Humphrey-Butler engineered quite the drive late in the first half, and then he threw his first touchdown pass, a 1-yarder to T.J. Boatright with 10 seconds on the clock.

“Piland said they were going to ‘boot’ me out to the left. If it’s not there, throw it away,” Humphrey-Butler said. “I just lofted it in there and let T.J. do his magic, and he caught it.”

In the third quarter, Humphrey-Butler had a 26-yard touchdown run. He credited lineman Sam Lowe with the key block to send him on his way.

Humphrey-Butler does not know who will be starting at QB next week. Tanner Nelson separated his non-throwing shoulder last week. Nelson said he might be back in Week 3.

“Me and Tanner have grown up together. We’re best friends,” Humphrey-Butler said. “Whoever gets the job is going to get it done.”

CAMAS 27, MOUNTAIN VIEW 14
Camas controls scoreboard early, holds off Thunder

Credit the Thunder: Mountain View fell behind 20-0 early in the second quarter, then really started taking it to the Camas defense. Turned out, the Thunder outgained the Papermakers in offense, 327-292.

Mountain View had four players rush for at least 50 yards: P.J. Jones had 93, Sterling Reynolds ended up with 80, quarterback Ryan Hansen picked up 51, and Dylan Peterson had 50.

Zack with a ‘k’: Camas’ Zack Marshall is new to varsity football in terms of being a running back. So we, at The Columbian, are just getting to know him. 

First off, he is a joy to interview because he exudes so much joy from being on the football field. And, of course, we have to get to know him because he scores so many touchdowns.

Marshall added three more against Mountain View, giving him six in two weeks.

And then I found out that he is Zack with a k in his name. The Camas roster listed it as Zach, and that’s what I went with last week in Seattle for the Emerald City Kickoff Classic.

And that’s the name I was going to use for this week’s game.

Funny thing is I had written some of my story prior to interviewing him after the game. And initially I did not change the h to a k. I caught the mistake after our first edition was printed, then we made the change for the second edition. (Well, I hope the change was made.) 

Either way, I’ll remember your name from now on, Zack.

Seen that before: Zack Marshall’s second touchdown against Mountain View came after the same play was called two times in a row. The first one was a big gain that was called back by a holding penalty. The second time, the blocking was solid and true, and Marshall sprinted 35 yards for a touchdown. He even ran through the end zone and into the track area of McKenzie Stadium. For you Raider fans out there (and God bless all of us Raider fans) he looked like Bo Jackson running in the Kingdome, long past the end zone.

“The play was there, so we called it,” Camas coach Jon Eagle said. “It doesn’t take Einstein to get No. 25 (Marshall) the ball.”

KELSO 12, COLUMBIA RIVER 3
Looks like a baseball score from Colorado, but no, it’s just another strong defensive game between these rivals.

Scoreboard operator only needed for part-time work: Columbia River beat Kelso last year, when it was a non-league game, 7-3. That makes for 25 points total in the past two games between these rivals. That is defense.

Columbia River held Kelso to 155 yards of offense. The Chieftains, though, managed only 191, plus they turned the ball over seven times. 

FORT VANCOUVER 45, BATTLE GROUND 27
The Trappers score early and often

Four x 50 is gotta be good: Fort Vancouver, like Mountain View, had four rushers hit the 50-yard mark. Jordan Vela rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown. Richard Vansiclen just missed the century mark with 95 yards and three touchdowns. Robert Bain had 80 yards and two scores. And Abdul Conteh had 57 yards and a touchdown.

The Trappers’ 45 points were the most they had scored in four years.

Some hope: Battle Ground scored in all four quarters, showing that the Tigers can move the ball and find the end zone. 

PRAIRIE 54, HOCKINSON 21
New-look Falcons roll to victory in home opener

Fancy: Prairie unveiled its new uniforms, then scored on the first play from scrimmage. Hey, if that works, the Falcons should get new uniforms every week. 

How is this for efficient? Prairie quarterback Colin Seitz was 10 of 15 for 337 yards and four TDs. How many yards on 10 completions? Seems a bit high, but then take a look at the four TD passes: 45 yards, 88 yards, 28 yards, and 43 yards. That’s over 200 yards right there. 

WASHOUGAL 41, WHITE SALMON 7
Panthers are 2-0. Cool, huh?

Football is fun: We at The Columbian never like to see a program continue to struggle. Yes, there are up and down years for every program. But when things seem down for so long, it is difficult for some players to stay positive. So while we don’t root for any one team over another on a particular week, I can say we do root for all of our region’s teams to find some success during each season.

Two years ago, Washougal did not win a game. Last year, there was progress, with two wins. And now, in 2010, the Panthers are undefeated heading into Week 3. As football fans, we can appreciate this.

RIDGEFIELD 27, WOODLAND 7
STEVENSON 59, CORBETT 0
LA CENTER 20, ROCHESTER 0
The Trico League teams in The Columbian’s readership area are a combined 6-0.

Great start: We are used to the La Center Wildcats winning. And this year, the Wildcats have some lofty goals. This could be a state playoff-bound squad. Still, even with expectations, it’s fun to start off 2-0.

Then, add in to the Trico League mix, Ridgefield and Stevenson are both 2-0 as well in the non-league schedule. If these teams keep winning, league play is going to be fantastic for all of us.

Dylan Young was huge for the Spudders on Friday, rushing for 168 yards and three touchdowns. The Spudders also had a 99-yard touchdown drive in that game.

Stevenson, meanwhile, recorded its second consecutive shutout. This one was over early, with the Bulldogs taking a 40-0 lead at the half.

…

Didn’t get to every team in the area, but the NFL Sunday Ticket is just hours away and I need a little sleep. 

Here is Week 3’s schedule

THURSDAY
Woodland at Battle Ground, 7 p.m.