Leandre Gaines (7) pulls one in for a touchdown Friday night in Chehalis.
Before the prep football season started, I stated I didn’t really know who would rise to the top, and I could not have been proven more right on that statement by my slate of Week 1 grid picks.
I thought Centralia would defeated Columbia River, I didn’t think Mossyrock was going to win against South Bend. I doubted the Cardinals against North Beach, I thought Neah Bay would outlast Morton-White Pass and I thought the east side would represent better with Colfax defeating Wahkiakum.
Let me be the first to say it: I was wrong.
Hopefully, I can right the ship with my picks in Week 2 and not let Aaron VanTuyl win grid picks, as that is the only goal I have during this prep football season.
So far, it’s not looking good.
I did pick all the collegiate games correctly, so I’ve got that going for me.
As for prep football, Week 2 has a quality slate of games up and down I-5. From the Tigers in Kalama to the Indians traveling north to face the Mountaineers, Week 2 should be telling as to who will rise in the Lewis County football scene.
2A/1A
After opening the season with a fourth quarter comeback win over River Ridge, the Bearcats hit the road for the first time this season and head north to take on 3A Capital. Capital won its opening game 27-9 over Lakes in Lakewood.
W.F. coach Dan Hill was pleased with his team’s response to adversity against River Ridge.
“It was the first week and you’re going to have things to work on,” Hill said. “I’m glad with how we respond to adversity. Our guys made it happen. When the going got tough, we persevered through the situation.”
Josiah Johnson had a decent game in his first career varsity start at quarterback, and is hoping to improve upon his Week 1 performance.
“I thought Jo did great. He made a few mistakes, those are all fixable things,” Hill said. “Some of those things were receiver breakdowns, he tried to improvise. We talked about it, we’ll move on and grow. Overall, it was good for his first outing.”
W.F. West will have to keep an eye on Capital quarterback Grant Erickson. At 6’ 6 and 220 pounds, the senior will be a tough task for the Bearcat defense. Erickson’s favorite target is Chris Penner, a senior wide receiver who will make things tough for the W.F. West secondary.
Rochester is fresh off an opening game win against Tenino and heads west this week to take on Elma. The Eagles are coming off a Week 1 48-14 win over King’s Way Christian... Centralia (0-1) will try to get in the win column by defeating Evergreen in Vancouver on Friday. Evergreen lost to Heritage 21-17 in their season opener… Tenino (0-1) will also try to earn their first win hosting King’s Way on the blacktop in Tenino.
2B
There’s no shortage of big games in the 2B ranks, and it starts with last year’s state semifinal rematch between Kalama and Napavine in Kalama. The Chinooks are coming off a 48-40 loss in Woodland, a game in which Alex Dyer threw for six touchdowns.
Dawson Stanley is coming off a big game of his own for the Tigers, throwing for three scores and running for three more in a 41-7 win over Liberty in Cathlamet.
Napavine coach Josh Fay knows the team will have to put pressure on Dyer in order to win.
“It comes down to being able to get pressure on him. The teams that are able to do that, they have to actually be able to tackle him. He’s elusive,” Fay said. “We’ll have an emphasis of penetration, but we’ve got to finish and get him on the ground.”
After two losses last season to Kalama, including one at home in Napavine and another at Tiger Stadium in November, the Tigers didn’t watch that film and are focused on this game.
“We watched their film from this year, the jamboreee and the state championship game,” Fay said. “They’re doing a lot of the same stuff, minus a couple weapons. Dyer was the player of the year for a reason.”
Woodland was able to defeat Kalama and Fay hopes the Tigers are able to copy some of the Beavers’ schemes.
“There were a lot of similarities to what we do offensively. We’re going to look and see if their schemes work for us,” Fay said. “You’ll see us do what we do and spread the field, try and establish a perimeter run, complete some passes.”
Adna is hosting another big game after a 35-0 win over Pe Ell-Willapa Valley in the opener. The Pirates welcome the Mules to town on Friday, who are fresh off a 14-0 win over Colfax in the other game of the East-West showdown in Cathlamet last Saturday.
Adna coach KC Johnson watched 10 hours of film on the Mules over the weekend and noted the three stud athletes of seniors James Anderson, Lucas Brown and Quentin Nelson.
“They have three really good athletes that do a good job. The thing that makes you worry is quality of coaching,” Johnson said. “Eric Hansen, Marc Niemeyer, Pat Brown, they’re as good as anybody you’ll see, just amazing coaches. They’ll come in with a great game plan. It’s going to be a chess match early.”
Johnson noted the Mules only play about 13 or 14 kids and he hopes his team will be able to rotate bodies and wear down Wahkiakum.
As for his team’s performance against PWV, he knows the team has to reduce the penalties in order to defeat a team like Wahkiakum.
“That made me want to puke. We had three games worth of penalties in a game and they’re all fixable,” Johnson said. “Three were declined, three of them were not good calls. Eleven of them were mental mistakes, lineman down field, block in the back, just mistakes.”
The Pirates shutout the Titans and Johnson was pleased with his defense’s performance and hopes they can come close to replicating that on Friday.
Another matchup of top teams includes Toledo, traveling north to face Rainier. Toledo trounced Charles Wright Academy 37-7 at home last Friday, while Rainier defeated the Seagulls 27-10 in Raymond.
A rivalry game between two undefeated teams will take place in Mossyrock on Friday, as the Vikings look to improve to 2-0 after a 20-8 win over South Bend. Onalaska comes in fresh off a 56-0 win over Toutle Lake and have retained the helmet since 2015. The Vikings last win came in 2014, a 21-0 win in Mossyrock.
Elsewhere, Morton-White Pass (1-0) will play a full game of 11-man football this Friday when they host Raymond (0-1) in Randle... Winlock heads to South Bend to try and improve to 2-0 after a 21-6 win in the opener against North Beach… PWV (0-1) will try to bounce back from the opening loss against Adna with a win on Saturday, hosting Concrete in Menlo. Concrete lost their opening game 54-7 against Terry Fox Secondary School from British Columbia.
