High School ball--Kennedy Lancers vs. Lincoln Abes
Live from Highline (Burien) Stadium, it's two of the state's top running backs facing off--Kennedy's Nate Williams and Lincoln's Roman Pula. And, yes, we're shamelessly ripping off the Sports Guy's running-diary format.
6:48 -- After a long debate about where's the best place to park so we can escape easily, we finally decide on a spot, pay our five bucks to get in, and claim a spot near the band and the student section, but a respectable distance away from the cheerleaders.
6:53 -- Kennedy runs onto the field in their Kool-Aid red uniforms. They sprint toward the end zone and a few players leap onto the goalpost and begin humping it. Not really sure of the significance of this...
Lincoln runs through the traditional paper sign, held up by their cheerleaders. The Lincoln cheerleaders aren't wearing skirts, but instead what looks like hot pants. This is a positive development.
6:54 -- I'm flipping through my program and notice that former Husky and Parade High School All-American Paul Arnold is one of Kennedy's assistant coaches. He was one of the Huskies' most highly-touted recruits ever. I'll bet he didn't think he'd be assistant coaching his old high school at 26. Ouch.
6:56 -- Our novelist friend shows up and points out that we've chosen a seat with a gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier. Hadn't seen it. That's probably why he's a novelist and Seattlest writes about non-league high school football games. Off to the east, we can see a Sea-Tac air control tower, which sort of looks like a maximum-security prison guard tower from afar.
6:58 -- The Kennedy band really struggles through the national anthem. It's early in the year for them, too.
7:00 -- Kickoff! They are very punctual here at Kennedy.
7:04 -- Lincoln's stud RB Roman Pula gains the game's first first down, then does a little chest bump celebration. If Lincoln's celebrating because they got one first down, they must not have very high expectations.
7:06 -- Pula has a nice run off-tackle, but gets creamed by opposing running back Nate Williams after about 12 yards. In high school ball, most players go both ways, so you have cool stuff like the two dueling running backs also trying to tackle each other.
7:16 -- Kennedy gets two nice runs up the middle--they have a huge offensive line with 6-3, 290 Kevin Frietag, who's going to WSU next year, and 6-5, 350 Mike Vigil. But on third down, they inexplicably run outside, and get stuffed.
7:24 -- Lincoln goes three and out, then botches the second punt snap of the game. Kennedy has it deep in Lincoln territory, but go outside again and get stuffed. They punt.
7:32 -- The Abes are good tacklers, specifically Gerrell Wilkins, a 5-7, 180 DB who's made a couple of nice tackles on 6-1, 210 Nate Williams. Good tackling is a sign of good coaching.
7:37 -- There's debate about whether Kennedy is a private school or not, we concede defeat when we see that Kennedy has a team chaplain.
7:40 -- Lincoln drives down inside the Kennedy five with a pass to this tiny sophomore receiver, 5-7, 155 Ryan Rogers. Hell--we were 5-7, 155 in high school.
7:47 -- Interesting play call for the Abes--they are out of timeouts and have the ball on the Kennedy 2 with twelve seconds left. If they run and don't make it, time will run out. But their passing game is awful--they get sacked half the time. They decide to run with Pula, he runs it in for the first score of the game. They botch the extra point, but Lincoln leads 6-0 at halftime--improbably so. They've turned the ball over twice, and if Kennedy had just been going up the middle, they'd be way ahead. We pile calumny on Kennedy's coach.
8:00 -- The Kennedy dance team is on the field. We hope these girls don't think they are helping their causes, popularity-wise, by dancing in tandem to a Beach Boys song. Yikes.
8:06 -- Kennedy starts out with the ball, they keep running outside. Inexplicable.
8:11 -- Lincoln with the ball again, they get a huge run by their QB down to the Kennedy 20. The QB is tackled out of bounds, but the refs don't throw a flag. Then some Lincoln player tries to exact revenge, the refs see that and give them a 15 yard penalty. A big opportunity wasted by the Abes.
Is there any less intimidating nickname that the Lincoln "Abes"?
8:14 -- Kennedy's got a new offensive strategy--misdirectional running. Great idea, as Lincoln is totally keying on Williams...now they've got to be concerned about the other guys.
8:16 -- Williams has a 40 yard run down to the two, punches it in seconds later. Kennedy makes their kick and it's 7-6.
8:27 -- Kennedy has the ball back again at the Abes 20 after a horrible offensive series by Lincoln, they got pushed back to the goal line and had to punt out their own end zone. Williams runs it in. They miss the xp, it's 13-6.
8:29 -- Lincoln gets the ball back and it looks like Pula is injured (later find out he had cramps, he'd return later in the game). But they get a 63-yard run from their QB--and can tie the game if they can just make one competent special teams play ... they can't. The holder mishandles the snap, tries to pitch it back to the kicker, who really doesn't want the ball much, and gets tackled. It's 13-12.
8:40 -- Kennedy caps a long drive that included a key 4th down conversion with a 6 yard Nate Williams TD run. We notice that Kennedy puts its two huge linemen on the same side of the line when they need a couple of yards. Otherwise they are tackles on the opposite side of the line. XP is good, it's 20-12.
8:50 -- Lincoln's offense stalls, Kennedy runs right over them for another Nate Willams touchdown. That's Williams 4th of the game. They get the XP, it's 27-12, and with Lincoln showing no ability to stop the Lancers, we decide to leave and check out this bar in Burien, the Tin Room, a bistro/bar that used to be a tin shop. It turns out to be pretty cool.
We read in this morning's paper that Kennedy won 34-24.
Next game: Saturday (tomorrow) at the Emerald City Kickoff Classic. See the High School Sports with Seattlest calendar to see how you can find us.
