HS Football: Big Play Federal Way dooms Spanaway Lake Saturday afternoon

9/21/2024

(Federal Way, WA) “Do you remember the 21st of September?” is the question the mega band Earth, Wind and Fire asked in their #1 hit”September” back in 1978. Well the Federal Way Eagles have an easy answer to that question a whole hearted YES!. The Eagles fell behind early to the 2-0 Spanaway Lake Sentinels who came in at 2-0. The 2 teams feature a high powered offense with athletes on both sides who can break open a game in the blink of an eye.

The Sentinels came in scoring 47 and 40 points for a total of 87 in 2 games while the Eagles were 1-1 but scored 75 points in their opening 2 weeks so we expected a big offensive battle. Federal Way was also coming in off a stinging loss to to division opponent Decatur. Federal Way Coach Marcus Yzaguirre talked with ESN prior to the game and said they led the Gators 34-13 with 6 minutes to go in the game and lost in the final seconds 35-34. Yzaguirre said it was a combination of everything that could go wrong did and they paid for it. Yzaguirre said he focused his squad on playing all 48 minutes and to finish. Well message received.

Spanaway Lake came out looking to add to their offensive fast start and actually took a 7-6 lead in the 1st quarter with 5:07 to play. Federal Way did score first on a 27 yard pass from QB Andy Cortez to Jayden Sinclair. The PAT was blocked so the Eagles led 6-0. The Sentinels answered on their 2nd drive with a 5 play drive that was capped off with a brilliant run and scramble from running back Peyton Martin who took the ball from QB Chase Best and began to sweep to the left but the Eagle defense was waiting for him so he turned back tlo the right going completly opposite of the called play found a lane and scampered 41 yards to the endzone for the score. The PAT was good from Joshua Schack and Spanaway Lake led 7-6.

Spanaway Lake’s defense then came up with a tremendous play stripping the ball out of Eagle running back Sione Kongaika giving the ball back to their offense on the Federal Way 19. The Eagles defense held tight though and forced the Sentinels to settle for a 22 yard field goal from Schack pushing their lead to 4 points 10-6.

Little did we know what looked like a back and forth offensive battle was going to stop right here as Federal Way’s offense put it together but more importantly the Eagle defense kept Spanaway Lake off balance for the rest of the game.

Federal Way took the lead for good on the next series after a good kick return to their own 43 the Eagles marched down the field in an 8 play drive with 4 runs and 4 passes. Kongaika more than made up for having the ball stripped from his hands as he pounded the Sentinels all game running the ball 17 times for 106 yards and would score later in the game.

On this drive Cortez found the speedy Austin May over the middle, made a great cut back and in from 8 yards out to go up 12-10. The 2 point conversion was no good.

The Play of the Game was the very next play from scrimmage as Spanaway Lake tried to go deep on 1st down from their own 35 but the pass from Best looked like a sure interception from Zamarie Tellez but Tellez had the ball bounce off of him into the air where his teammate Gabe Gomez alertly snagged and returned it to Spanaway Lake 45. 5 plays later and Kongaika pounded in for the touchdown, Rahil Chand added the PAT to make it 19-10.

The Eagles would end up wikth 5 interceptions from their defense on this day with the next one coming on the next drive by the Sentinels when Jayden Sinclair picked one off and the Eagles were back in business on their own 40. Federal Way again attacked on the ground and the air and a nifty play-action by Cortez then he tucked the ball and cut back to the middle of the offensive line and a massive hole emerged which he walked into the endzone from 21 yards out, the PAT was added and it was 26-10.

Spanaway Lake would get the ball back with 3:14 to play in the half and believe it or not with some sloppy ball handling and not being on the right page the 2 teams would exchange the ball 5 times in the final 3 minutes. In the end Spanaway Lake had 1 last shot with the ball on the Eagles 14. A touchdown here could make this a 1 score game at the break. On the final play Best under pressure tried to get the ball out in the flat to maybe get out of bounds so they could kick a field goal or get 1 more play. Instead, that man, Gabe Gomez picked off the pass at the 11 and then sprinted 89 yards to house and a potential 1 score game gets blown open to a 23 point 33-10 lead at halftime.

Federal Way would receive the 2nd half kick-off and the Eagles were not going to allow the Sentinels to get back in this game as Tellez picked up the loose ball on his own 23 and sprinted straight up the field cut to his right and was gone for a 77 yard kick-off return for the Touchdown. The PAT was blocked keeping the score 39-10 but the daamage was done.

Federal Way would add 40 yard touchdown pass from Cortez to Tellez to make it 46-10 and then a final score with 11:52 to go in the game with Cortez hitting May for the 2nd timne and the final 53-10 score.

Cortez finished going 11 of 19 for 174 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 ints. We didn’t get a chance to keep track of the return yardage but the Eagle defense and special teams were tremendous and no doubt had well over 200 yards of return acreage between kick returns and interception returns.

Federal Way improves to 2-1 and have a big NPSL showdown next Friday at Enumclaw. Spanaway Lake drops to 2-1 and will likely dismiss this performance and get back to work with a huge home game against Yelm in their league opener on Friday.

Our Game MVP was a tough decision with sp many Eagles having big games from Andy Cortez to Jayden Sinclair, Austin May, Gabe Gomez, Sione Kongaika and more. But Zamarie Tellez who scored twice, played offense, defense, returned kicks and punts and is the kicker on kick-offs earned our votes for the MVP in what truly was a terrific team effort.

Below you can watch our crew’s post game show for more on this game followed by some video highlights. You can also watch the entire game on-demand on the NFHS Network on the following link.

Click here to watch the full game broadcast on the NFHS Network (Subscription required)