By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The O’Dea Fighting Irish faced off against the Graham-Kapowsin Eagles (GK) last night in the opening game of the Memorial Classic at Memorial Stadium.
In a high-energy game, O’Dea brought their A-game early, showing their physical dominance from the opening whistle. O’Dea scored their first touchdown a little over a minute into the game on a pass from the quarterback to receiver Giulio Banchero. However, the two-point conversion attempt by O’Dea failed as the Eagles forced a sack on the play.
Defensively, the Fighting Irish showcased their aggressive and physical style of play, which kept the Eagles at bay throughout the first quarter.
Despite an interception by GK senior Khris Norris late in the first quarter, the defensive momentum stayed with O’Dea. Peter Pauly, Ernest Populus, and Joseph Fuavai all recorded key first-quarter tackles, as the Fighting Irish went into the second quarter with a 6-0 lead.
Coming off a seemingly quick first quarter, the Fighting Irish didn’t lose any momentum, as senior Cole Edwards and Fuavai recorded big sacks, stopping the Eagles’ offense from getting into rhythm and moving the ball down the field.
O’Dea’s Sage Salopek was Eagle quarterback AJ Tuivaiave’s biggest threat, intercepting a Tuivaiave pass and nearly securing another as he made his presence felt in O’Dea’s defensive secondary.
The back-and-forth play of both teams during the quarter resulted in O’Dea taking a 6-0 lead into halftime.
The third quarter started off with a second touchback by Roberson.
During the third quarter, O’Dea quickly reasserted their dominance on defense as sophomore defensive back Ray Clark III tackled Norris for a loss. Additionally, the Fighting Irish recorded two more sacks as they continued to apply defensive pressure on Tuivaiave, making things difficult for the Eagles’ offense.
Roughly four minutes into the quarter, Quincey Brown scored O’Dea’s second touchdown of the evening, which was followed by a successful two-point conversion on a swing pass to Banchero, giving O’Dea a 14-0 lead.
Following O’Dea’s impressive start to the third quarter, the Eagles secured their first touchdown of the night as Norris scored on a 62-yard touchdown run, making the score 14-7 in favor of O’Dea after a successful extra point attempt by GK.
The energy on the Eagles’ sideline began to change as they sensed the momentum swinging in their favor. The Eagles recovered an O’Dea fumble, which led to a 45-yard touchdown.
GK sophomore Deacon Ravary recovered the fumble off O’Dea senior Luther Hill, and sophomore Kase Betz made a 45-yard reception. These astounding efforts allowed the Eagles to tie the game 14-14 going into the final quarter of play.
The fourth quarter was a nail-biter, to say the least.
Although O’Dea was continually advancing the ball up the field, the Eagles began to slow down their momentum as GK senior Jonathan Haas stopped O’Dea’s Quincey Brown in his tracks, with the Eagles standing toe-to-toe with the Fighting Irish.
With eight minutes left in the game, O’Dea sophomore Peyton Egan scored a touchdown, bringing the score to 21-14. However, the Eagles answered with a touchdown of their own by Betz with seven minutes remaining, tying the score again at 21.
Despite the game slowing down after the two big plays by both teams, O’Dea’s Mason Filitaula scored a long-yard touchdown, dodging multiple defenders along the way, giving O’Dea the upper hand with a 28-21 lead and five minutes remaining.
The final minute of the game was well worth the slow-paced start to the fourth quarter.
GK senior Noah Flores scored on a touchdown pass from Tuivaiave, tying the game yet again at 28-28. With only 27 seconds left on the clock, the potential for overtime was high, but O’Dea wasn’t going to let that happen.
With time winding down in the fourth quarter and the Eagles in possession of the ball, O’Dea scored on a 33-yard fumble return for a touchdown, allowing the Fighting Irish to clinch a 35-28 win over GK as time expired.
O’Dea Head Football Coach Monte Kohler said he was fully expecting the game to go into overtime but was ecstatic about how his team found a way to win, even though they didn’t have possession of the ball.
“It would have been fun to play in overtime the first game of the year, but this was a great way to win,” said Kohler.
“I am happy for the kids. They worked hard, played a great, hard-fought game against a great opponent, and it was just a fun, exciting game,” continued Kohler. “Everything started to pick up in the second half, which brought us a lot of points.”
