By Karrington Kincaid, The Seattle Medium
The extremely rainy conditions didn’t stop the anticipated match between the Eastside Catholic Crusaders and the Lincoln Abes. With the playoffs just starting, both teams came out very confident and eager to get on the field to show what their teams are made of.
On the opening drive of the game, the Crusader defense came out on fire, getting into the backfield and forcing the Abes into a 3-and-out.
Taking a cue from their defense, the Crusaders’ offense was equally motivated to prove they were the better team. On their first offensive play of the game, Eastside Catholic quarterback Jake Tiryakioglu completed a 50-yard pass to Asa Thompson to the Abes’ 21-yard line. Tiryakioglu followed up that pass with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Christopher Taylor, giving the Crusaders a 7-0 lead.
The Abes continued to struggle on their next two offensive drives, which led to a punt on the first drive and a high snap in the endzone on the second, resulting in a safety for the Crusaders and making the score 9-0.
The Crusaders continued to show their first-quarter dominance as linebacker David Lene picked off Abes quarterback Sione Kaho. Eastside Catholic running back Jeremiah Burroughs followed up with a 26-yard run, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run by David Lene to give the Crusaders a 16-0 lead.
The Abes got some momentum to start the second quarter when Nate Mapp had a 30-yard punt return to give his team possession of the ball in Crusader territory. However, the momentum would be short-lived as the offense would stall once again, which led to another Abe’s punt.
The Crusaders’ Ambrose Marsh would seize the moment as he returned the punt back 84 yards for a touchdown, making the score 23-0.
The Crusaders would continue their dominance in the second quarter as they completely shut down the Abes’ offense.
Defensively, the Abes’ Kanoa Teplasy would get two interceptions to keep his team in the game.
The Crusaders would capitalize on the final drive of the half as Lene would score his second touchdown of the game on a 2-yard run, making the game 30-0 going into halftime.
Eastside came out strong in the second half with a 55-yard kick return to the Abes’ 40-yard line. Penalties, including a holding and a personal foul call, would stall out the drive, which led to a 37-yard field goal by the Crusaders, making the game 33-0.
Late in the third quarter, Lene would make his presence felt again as he recovered a fumble by Abes quarterback Sione Kaho. Eastside Catholic’s Ambrose Marsh would capitalize on the opportunity by scoring on a 22-yard touchdown run, making the game 40-0.
Throughout the rest of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, both teams would go back and forth by exchanging defensive stops, which led to the final score of 40-0 in favor of the Crusaders.
Despite the heartbreaking loss for the Lincoln Abes, Head Coach Masaki Matsumoto had lots of encouragement for what the future holds for this football team going forward to next season.
“We have a lot of juniors and sophomores coming back next year. We’re going to definitely miss the leadership and the play of the seniors [next season]; all 14 of them were great kids,” said Matsumoto. “Our future is bright. So, we’re going into the offseason to evaluate everything, and work hard to get back to the playoffs and win it all.
Eastside Catholic Head Coach Dominic Daste was very pleased with his team’s performance against the Abes, but he knows the journey doesn’t end here.
“One of the things we’ve always tried to do is to get better every week, and we’ve been really good in the last couple of years doing that,” said Daste. “I do feel like from practice to games, we’ve done a good job of eliminating penalties and mental mistakes that could lead to turnovers and bad plays, and I think that exemplifies championship football and where we’re going as a team.”
With the win, the Crusaders advance to the quarterfinal round of the state 3A football playoffs, where they will face Kennewick next Saturday, November 18, at Memorial Stadium.