Day After Report: King’s Way Christian 31, Columbia-White Salmon 7
I first started covering high school football in 1997, my junior year in college in Tacoma.
One of the first lessons I learned at The News Tribune came to mind Friday. Even when it’s raining buckets, don’t make the weather the central focus of your game report.
Because there are several games in a newspaper’s coverage area all being played in the same conditions, if every report focused on the weather, the stories would all read alike.
But this is the Day After Report, where almost anything is fair game. Suffice it to say, the weather played a big role in King’s Way Christian’s 31-7 win Friday over Columbia-White Salmon.
The first half was played in an absolute downpour. Credit the Knights for adjusting to the conditions better than their opponents.
King’s Way quarterback Liam Nabors entered Friday with 1,881 passing yards, third best among area quarterbacks. But against White Salmon, Nabors attempted only 10 passes, completing six for 73 yards. Of King’s Way’s 59 plays, 49 were runs.
The Knights’ run-first approach on offense was effective. King’s Way racked up 357 yards of rushing, with Jonathan Stell (168 yards), Luke Hoffman (96 yards) and Taj Muhammad (77 yards) doing most of the carrying.
White Salmon, meanwhile, struggled in the downpour. The Bruins lost three fumbles in the first half, during which they gained just 71 yards.
Speaking of downpours, a shoutout goes to the fans at Friday’s game. Unlike most fields, King’s Way has no covered seating. But toting umbrellas and slickers, fans filled two sections of metal bleachers and stood along the sidelines throughout Friday’s game, which saw King’s Way pull within one win of clinching a postseason berth as the likely No. 2 team from the Class 1A Trico League.
— Micah Rice, Columbian Sports Editor
Micah Rice
Columbian Sports Editor Micah Rice is the author of Tailgate Talk: College football from a Clark County perspective.