Thursday Re-Cap: Kennedy Cath remains unbeaten in Football, NT Rams hold off Hawks in Baseball

4/8/2021

An interesting night of sports on ESN Thursday night, Football, Girls Soccer and a Baseball game. Our re-caps, pictures and video clips are all below.

Football

WIAA Game of the Week
Kennedy Catholic 54, Kentridge 7

(Kent WA) Kennedy Catholic spent most of 2019 as the top ranked 4A team in the state and were defeated in the quarterfinals. With nearly everyone back they were the odds-on choice to get to the top of the ladder in 2020 but then Covid-19 hit. It has taken a ton of work to get to this point of any games and then there was a question if the Lancers Senior QB Sam Huard would be back after committing to the University of Washington.

Huard did come back and he set the State’s passing record formerly held by Shadle Park’s Brett Rypien of 13,044 yards. Huard finished last week against Kentwood with 514 yards pushing his career total to 13,226. But when the game was over so was his High School career. Huard had enough credits to graduate early and officially enrolled at the University of Washington on Monday so he could be eligible for Spring ball with the Huskies.

So the question was would Kennedy sophomore QB Mason Hayes be able to step in and continue the success of the Lancers. Kennedy was 4-0 coming in to the game with Kentridge while the Chargers were 3-1. Early on there was a clear question of what impact losing Huard would have and in fact after taking a 6-0 lead on a 10-yard Leland Ward touchdown run, the 2 point conversion failed, Kentridge would respond. after trading possessions.

The Chargers held the Lancers and took over on the KC 45. The Chargers used the running game and a big 3rd and 7 screen pass that got them down to the 25. After a 5-yard penalty on the KC defense, they would sack Kentridge QB Chance Guadiz back at the 30. On the next play Guadiz found Nick Youngblood down at the 2 in a jump ball reception for a first and goal. The Chargers then went hurry up and caught Kennedy with too many men on the field but handed the ball off to Jayden Smith who walked into the endzone anyway to tie the game with less than a minute to play in the 1st quarter. Brandon Smith added the PAT and with 45-seconds to play in the 1st Kentridge led 7-6.

Unfortunately for the Chargers that would be it. Kennedy Catholic worked the ball out to the 50 when Hayes connected with Lamont Richardson all the way down to the 1 yard line which was the final play of the 1st quarter. Ward then ran it in off left tackle for the easy score to make it 12-7 as again the 2-point conversion failed. After forcing a Kentridge punt the Lancers rolled down the field to the 7 where Hayes found Richardson for a TD this time on a slant pattern to make it 18-7.

KC then forced Kentridge to turn the ball over on downs and then the Chargers recovered a fumble near mid-field but then had to punt it away where the Lancers took over on their own 22. The Lancers would work it down to the 15 and Hayes hit Jr Alexander on a short crossing pattern and he did the rest dragging defenders into the endzone to cap off the 78 yard drive. Once again the point after failed and it was 24-7. (Video below)

Kentridge then threatened with a 2nd and goal from the 2 but were denied with less than 2:00 to play in the half, sacking Guadiz on 4th down back at the 12 yard line. They would go to the break with KC leading 24-7.

In the 3rd quarter the Lancers exploded offensively scoring an 8 yard slant from Hayes to Alexander with 10:53 to play in the quarter and they would finally convert a 2-point PAT to make it 32-7. After a turn-over Hayes hit Reed Shumpert for about a 40-yard gain to the 10 and on the next play Alexander hauled in his 3rd TD of the game, the PAT would fail and it was 38-7 with still more than 10-minutes on the clock.

On the next Charger possession Kieran Collins would pick off Guadiz and returned it 66 yards, taking it to the house for the score, the PAT was good and it was 46-7. KC would intercept again and they would work it down to the 5 yard line and on 4th and goal Hayes laid up a perfect fade and Alexander grabbed his 4th TD of the game. The 2 point conversion was good and the 54-7 pushed the game to a running clock and that would be it. (Video below)

Leland Ward was named the Player of the Game for Kennedy Catholic and Nick Youngblood for Kentridge. The Lancers are now 5-0 and will wrap up their season next Saturday hosting Mount Rainier. Kentridge drops to 3-2 and will showdown with their crosstown rival Kentwood next Friday night.

Video Clips (Brandon Brown & Joe Withee)

Girls Soccer
Eastside Catholic 3, Garfield 1

(Seattle, WA) Eastside Catholic (3-3) defeated Garfield (3-3) in girls soccer on Thursday evening by a score of 3-1. The Crusaders opened the scoring and, despite threatening moments by the Bulldogs, led the entire game. The victory draws the Crusaders even with the Bulldogs in the Metro League standings.

Jenna Marti opened the scoring for Eastside Catholic after Thea Smith’s pressing created a turnover in the Garfield box; Smith won the ball and crossed, where Marti finished. (Video below) Minutes later, a through ball sent Marti in on goal. While keeper Stephanie Lorenzo made a foot save on Marti’s effort, Smith turned up for a finish off the rebound. (Video below)

Just seconds after Smith’s goal, Garfield senior Cathie Huang belted a wondergoal from about 35 yards out. The first half concluded with back-and-forth attacking action from both teams and the Crusaders maintaining their 2-1 lead. (Video below)

Garfield dominated the ball over the course of the second half, with Eastside Catholic defending valiantly and hitting long balls in attempts to counterattack. However, Eastside Catholic’s press once again made the difference, as Emma Kim won the ball off of a Garfield throw-in, and volleyed a left-footed screamer from outside the box into the top corner of the goal.

Garfield continued to attack throughout the second half, but Eastside Catholic’s defense stood firm, with keeper Madi Hartzell making several comfortable saves. Eastside Catholic’s Morse won the Visiting Player of the Game award for her tackling, interceptions, and excellent positional play at both left back and center back. Garfield’s Maki Ichikawa won the Home Player of the Game award for her excellent work on the ball, helping retain possession and winning the ball back for Garfield.

Eastside Catholic has one final match next Thursday when they host Franklin while Garfield had their regular season come to an end.

Video Clips (Connor Hartley)

Baseball
North Thurston 4, River Ridge 3

(Lacey, WA) This was a pitching dual as both starters went at least 6 innings. Chase Clark got the start for the Rams and would go 6 2/3’s, striking out 7, walking 2 and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits. Clark nearly went the distance and faced all batters but one to earn the win.

The Hawks sent out Zavien Brewer who pitched 6 innings where he gave up just 3 hits, no earned runs while striking out 8 with 3 walks. Despite the strong outing, including striking out at least one batter in each of the 6 innings he pitched, errors killed the Hawks and led directly to the loss.

North Thurston got on the board in the 1st inning with 2 out after Brett Haggerty got on 1st after a fielder’s choice. Owen Bryan then ripped an RBI single and Haggerty slid in for the early lead.

The Rams then ran the score to 4-0 in the top of the 3rd inning and once again errors played a big role. Clark, the lead-off hitter got on by error, then stole 2nd. Joaquin Velez-Fucal then strike out swinging but the ball bot by catcher Keland Naputi who threw out Velez-Fucal but Clark advanced to 3rd.

Haggerty came to the plate for the 2nd time and grounded one to 3rd base where the Hawks’ Josh Dominguez checked Clark and threw to 1st but the ball got by 1st baseman Owen Toucher and Clark scored and Haggerty advanced to 2nd and then would steal 3rd.

Following the 2nd strike-out of the inning, Haggerty would score when Kaden Melzer grounded one to short stop Kaedon Jemison who could have ended the inning but an errant throw would lead to the 3rd error of the inning, Haggerty scoring and Melzer on 2nd. Kenny Salva then stepped in and slapped an RBI single to push the 4th run home for a 4-0 lead.

River Ridge would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the 3rd with a 2 out rally as the top of the order Calvin Curio, Tyler Chisa both singled followed by an RBI single from Ke’ane Naputi.

The Hawks would make one last run in the bottom of the 7th when Curio with 1 out singled which was followed by a strikeout bringing Ke’ane Naputi to the plate with 2 out and Curio on 1st who then advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch. Naputi then walked to bring the tying run to the plate, Chanz Doughty.

Doughty slapped an RBI single up the middle while Naputi ended up on 3rd. With the 4-2 score that would be all for Clark and Owen Bryan came in to relieve and faced Brewer. Bryan then threw over to 1st to keep Doughty close but got by Haggerty. Naputi scored to make it 4-3 and the tying run on 1st with the winning run at the plate.

Brewer then grounded to Melzer at 3rd who forced out Doughty at 2nd to end the game. North Thurston improved to 5-2 and the Hawks dropped to 1-7. Our visiting team player of the game went to Chance Clark and our home player of the game was Calvin Curio.