Day After Report: Week 2, 2011

Despite the rumors, the championship of the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League has not yet been decided. Although Camas clearly showed it is the class of the league for now.

The Union Titans weren’t going to start 0-2, right? Of course not. They prevailed in Enumclaw. Of course, we thought the same about Skyview, too. The Storm did lose in Idaho on Saturday afternoon, falling to 0-2. Tough opening schedule for both 4A GSHL programs. We still expect them to battle for the title once league play begins.

Meanwhile, the Columbia River Chieftains, Washougal Panthers and Ridgefield Spudders joined Camas as the 2-0 teams from Clark County.

Battle Ground and Prairie won their first games, both scoring more than 50 points, too.

Heritage got its first win for coach Jack Hathaway, while Stevenson picked up its first win for coach David Waymire.

Here are more notes from Week 2 of the high school football season.

GAME OF THE WEEK:
CAMAS 31, MOUNTAIN VIEW 0
Well, it did not turn into the game of the week. But while planning our coverage, this battle between last year’s first- and second-place teams in the 3A GSHL certainly seemed that it would be our game of the week.

A year ago, Camas jumped out to a big lead over Mountain View in Week 2, then had to hold off the Thunder in the second half.

This year, Camas jumped out to a big lead over Mountain View in Week 2. And then? And then? Well, the dominance just continued. A blowout victory for the Papermakers.

Start with the defense:
While the Camas offense had a huge night, especially in the first half, it turned out the offense did not even need to do much. The defense was that huge for the Papermakers.

Mountain View went 3-and-out on its first two possessions, for negative-1 yard. The Thunder did get something going on its third possession, driving to the Camas 6-yard line. But the Thunder fumbled on a third-down play, and the Papermakers recovered, maintaining a 14-0 advantage.

On that third drive, the Thunder gained 68 yards of offense. The Thunder would have the ball three more times the rest of the half and the team totaled 60 yards for the half.

Yeah, the math certainly was not in Mountain View’s favor.

Kamari Brown had a 12-yard sack for the Papermakers. John Norcross had two tackles-for-loss in the first half and was in on a few other rushing plays that accounted for no gain. He also was in the right place at the right time again to scoop up a fumble and return it for a touchdown for the second week in a row.

On that play, linebacker Scott Feather got the tackle-for-loss, plus a forced fumble. Hope you saw the great photo of that play by Columbian photographer Zachary Kaufman.

Anyway, you get the picture. A week ago, the Thunder rushed for 349 yards in Week 1. They were held to nine yards rushing in the first half Friday.

“Our defense is the wrecking crew I thought it would be,” Camas coach Jon Eagle said.

Strong numbers from the QB: 
Tony Gennaro’s throwing motion is unorthodox, no doubt about it. He has a little hitch in his throw. Nobody from Camas cares, though, when the ball is delivered on time to the right place.

Gennaro went 13 of 16 for 179 yards and three touchdowns in the first half Friday night. Two of those incomplete passes were dropped.

“What I liked about Tony’s game tonight was that he was able to improvise and make something happen,” Eagle said. “A couple of those plays, the plays broke down, but he continued on, he used good vision, and he made the plays.”

Warner’s big day could have been bigger: 
Those of you who have read me for years know I do not pick on officials. There are wrong calls just like there are mistakes made by coaches and players. So don’t look at this as criticizing an official, but instead, defending a player.

Jonathan Warner had a strong performance with 10 catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns. His biggest play, and also perhaps the best throw of the night from Gennaro, was called back on an offensive pass interference penalty.

Keep in mind, I do not have a replay monitor in the press box, so it is entirely possible that there is a 1 percent chance that I’m wrong with this statement: Warner’s fantastic route was so good, it fooled not only the defensive back but also the official.

Warner ran an “out-and-up” and when he ran out, the defensive back bit. Hard. When the DB ran up to defend the “pass” on the out, Warner turned-and-burned up the field. The DB and Warner collided, sending both off course a bit. Warner, though, was able to adjust to the ball and still caught it for a 31-yard touchdown.

Nope, he was called for PI.

Again, there is a 1 percent chance I’m wrong, but that should have been defensive PI, which would have been declined, giving Warner three TDs. The defensive back interfered with Warner’s route because the DB bit on the fake. 

Alas, no one complains about a call like that in a 31-0 game.

Not giving up: 
It is no fun losing by such a large margin, but here’s to Mountain View’s Cory Creagan for a couple of solid plays on defense in the second half. He had a tackle-for-loss of 6 yards then another for 4 yards. Sweet plays, great effort, no matter the score.

League title?
Jonathan Warner said he tried to get himself pumped this week by convincing himself that this was for the league title. But he added that he will have to do the same thing this coming week.

His teammates followed suit.

“It was a faceless opponent,” Gennaro said, referring to the preparation for Mountain View and that the Papermakers couldn’t think that a Week 2 game was more important than any other contest. “We played our game, and it worked for us.”

“They all count,” Eagle said. “Enjoy this for a little while, and then you get ready for River.”

Camas takes on Columbia River next week in a battle of 2-0 teams.

Injury update:
Camas junior Nick Napier was taken off the field on a stretcher after a non-contact injury in pre-game warm-up.

Eagle said Napier broke his leg. The injury required surgery Saturday morning.

“He’s bummed, obviously, but he’ll get better,” Eagle said. “He’s disappointed. He is a player.”

Hey, nice catch, No. 12. Thank you, No. 12:
If you want something done the right way, sometimes it’s best to just take care of it yourself, right?

Back-up quarterback Reilly Hennessey completed his only pass of the game Friday. But it would have looked a little awkward if he had high-fived the guy who caught the pass. Hennessey’s pass was knocked into the air by a Mountain View defensive linenan, and Hennessey caught the ball and ran six yards. So if you had him on your fantasy team, he gets credit for six passing yards and six receiving yards. 

…

Now to other games:

COLUMBIA RIVER 40, KELSO 12
The Chieftains make a statement: They want to be in the playoff talk, too. A big win in the league opener against an old rival will be the start of that conversation.

Rushing attack:
Remick Kawawaki and Darius Raiford combined to rush for 279 yards against Kelso. 

“I think the linemen should be given credit for opening the holes at the line of scrimmage,” Columbia River coach John O’Rourke said. “The linemen played real steady and under control.”

That would be tackles Justin Frost and Joe Keller, center Spencer Thomas, and guards Andrew Morgan and Zach Green.

No time to celebrate:
Next up for Columbia River is a home game against Camas.

“Any of the league games are really important, but they’re the defending league champions,” O’Rourke said. “They’ve had two good victories. It’s a big challenge.”

PRAIRIE 55, HOCKINSON 7
The Falcons picked up their most lopsided win in school history.

That’s 9 TD passes in two weeks: 
Prairie quarterback Colin Seitz threw six touchdown passes Friday, giving him nine this season. We have his stats in our system, but unfortunately, we listed him in Friday morning’s paper as having just one TD pass last week. Sorry about that, Colin. It got corrected online, and we’re sure to have nine TD passes in print for next week’s leaders.

Settle down, everyone:
The final score was lopsided, but that doesn’t mean the game was not spirited.

With Prairie leading 35-0 in the second quarter, Hockinson punted to Prairie’s Jesse Zalk, who field the punt at his 40-yard line. He appeared to be headed down the sideline when Prairie was flagged for a block in the back. Prairie also was flagged for a personal foul. Zalk continued downfield and was forced out of bounds at the Hockinson 35, tackled into the bench. Players from both teams scuffled out of bounds, and more flags flew.

In all, there were five penalties on the play, two players were ejected, and the game was delayed nearly 15 minutes as the officials tried to sort it all out. Prairie would begin its next drive on its 15-yard line.

The emotional penalties did not end there.

On its final drive of the first half, Hockinson quarterback Josh Krahn hit Cole Kirkpatrick for an apparent 71-yard touchdown pass. Late in the play, a flag was thrown as a frustrated Hockinson player made contact with a Prairie defender long after Kirkpatrick had made the catch and was racing toward the end zone. The penalty brought the play back to the Hockinson 40. Krahn then hit on his next five passes that took the Hawks to Prairie’s 1-yard line. 

The Falcons stopped the Hawks at the 1 as time expired in the half.

UNION 49, ENUMCLAW 7
The Titans “rallied” for the win after trailing by a touchdown in the first quarter.

Gabe is good:
Gabe Rego, filling in for an injury, rushed 13 times for 144 yards and four touchdowns for the Titans, plus he caught a 59-yard touchdown pass from Kaben Humphrey-Butler.

While Rego made the most of his opportunities, so did Humphrey-Butler, who threw for 280 yards and two TDs on 9 of 13 passing.

Back on track:
Union coach Cale Piland on the team’s win after losing last week’s opener:

“We expected to bounce back. We are not accustomed to what happened last week. (The players’) pride was hurt. They had a solid end to practice this week and were ready to play.”

HERITAGE 36, MARK MORRIS 14
Jack Hathaway picks up his first win as a head coach.

Defense gets defensive:
The Timberwolves only allowed six plays of more than 10 yards and scored a couple of defensive touchdowns.

A host of defenders swarmed the Mark Morris ball carrier in the first quarter, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Houston Dillard and returned 4 yards to the end zone.

Later, Michael Quintana returned an interception 42 yards for a score. It was redemption for Quintana, who just missed an interception earlier in the game, but instead the deflected pass was caught for a Mark Morris TD.

That was quick: 
Joseph Cooper scored on a 4-yard run with 2:01 left in the third quarter. Quintana then got his interception return for a score. And then, after Mark Morris fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, the Timberwolves were in the end zone again with a 35-yard TD run from Gage Boyce.

That was three touchdowns in a span of 1 minute, 6 seconds.

Those penalties didn’t hurt this time:
Heritage had 135 penalty yards on 16 infractions, and at least a half-dozen penalties that were declined. The team will be working on that this season.

LAKES 49, EVERGREEN 6
No scoring in the quick second half.

No contest: 
Lakes is awesome. Evergreen is rebuilding. So, yeah, it was 42-0 after the first quarter.

Lots of Lakes talent:
Lakes has several college prospects, including heralded lineman Zach Banner, all 6-foot-9, 335 pounds of him.

Perhaps the most impressive Lancer on Friday was kick Bo Wittig. He was busy as the Lancers scored seven first-half touchdowns. He put all but one of his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, keeping Evergreen’s offense deep in its own territory.

BATTLE GROUND 54, FORT VANCOUVER 13
The Tigers scored the first three touchdowns of the game and never looked back in picking up their first win of the season. Five Tigers found the end zone in the easy victory.

Injury update:
The game was delayed about 20 minutes as medical personnel attended to Battle Ground’s Nathan Lake, who appeared to suffer from a leg injury. About 15 minutes into the injury timeout, Lake gave the thumps-up to his teammates and fans.

Battle Ground coach Larry Peck confirmed Saturday that Lake had suffered a broken leg and had surgery Saturday morning.

“Poor kid. He’s such a competitor. Great kid. He hadn’t played football for a couple of years. He was doing a helluva job for us,” Peck said.

“He wasn’t worried about the pain. He was laying on the field, just ticked off because he couldn’t play anymore.”

Peck also appreciated the Trappers for how they handled the incident.

“Every single one of them wanted to know how (Lake) was after the game,” Peck said. “I thought that was real classy.”

Dancin’ machine: Columbian correspondent Kate Zot also noticed that both mascots were in attendance at District Stadium. She gave the edge to the Tiger for having better dance moves than the Trapper.

RIDGEFIELD 27, WOODLAND 20
The Spudders stopped the Beavers five times inside the 30-yard line, including twice in the fourth quarter. … Ridgefield is 2-0 under new coach Matt Martin. … Woodland’s Cy Whitmire had an 80-yard touchdown run that sounds like he ran 130, going to one side, then back 15 yards to his own 5, then finding daylight to break the long one.

WASHOUGAL 56, WHITE SALMON 0
Make it 2-0 for the Panthers, who have now outscored their opponents 97-9. Bobby Jacobs rushed for 155 yards and four touchdowns. The Panthers bring their talents to Vancouver next week for a game against Fort Vancouver at Kiggins Bowl.