The football season is on the line for the Kentwood High football team.<\/p>\n
Figuratively and literally.<\/p>\n
Kentwood secured its first state berth since 2005 last Friday with a 35-28 overtime victory against Edmonds-Woodway. It was KW\u2019s seventh straight win.<\/p>\n
As much grit as the Conquerors (8-2) have shown during the seven-week stretch, they\u2019ll need to dig deeper on Saturday at 7 p.m., when they play at Issaquah (8-2) in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.<\/p>\n
The winner will host the Bothell-Curtis survivor in a state quarterfinal match-up next Friday or Saturday.<\/p>\n
But Kentwood\u2019s focus for now remains on Issaquah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very big and they can do a lot of things really well,\u201d Kentwood coach Rex Norris said.<\/p>\n
Very big might be an understatement.<\/p>\n
The Eagles\u2019 offensive line averages 264 pounds per player, going from 6-3, 301-pound Dillon Reagan to 5-9, 230-pound Kevin Degginger. In comparison, Kentwood\u2019s top offensive lineman is Hunter Blackmore (6-3, 260), whose been one of the South Puget Sound\u2019s best the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
It has been the play of that Issaquah line that has sprung loose star running back Grant Gallatly on numerous occasions and keyed the team\u2019s run to the state tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got a good group of skill kids and (Gellatly) is probably one of the better running backs I\u2019ve seen as far as vision,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
A 5-10 junior with speed to burn, Gellatly has emerged as one of the state\u2019s top running backs this season, going for 1,051 yards and 18 touchdowns (17 rushing) in eight games. He missed two games with a thumb injury early in the season.<\/p>\n
But Issaquah, behind first-year quarterback Joey Bradley (87 of 160, 1,339 yards, nine touchdowns, seven interceptions) has shown the ability to pass.<\/p>\n
The key for Kentwood, as always, will come down to the line, offensively and defensively. Top linemen Blackmore and Greg Humphreys, who each play on both sides of the ball, sat out on defense during the second half of last Friday\u2019s state-clinching win against Edmonds-Woodway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t risk them playing both ways,\u201d said Norris, now in his fifth year at the helm of the Conquerors. \u201cThey should be fine to play (against Issaquah).\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good news for Kentwood\u2019s rushing game, led by first-year senior starter Darrius Coleman (1,354 yards, 11 rushing touchdowns) and sophomore transfer Joseph Banks (58-503, 8 touchdowns).<\/p>\n
Coleman has rushed for at least 128 yards in six of Kentwood\u2019s last seven games, and has topped 200 yards twice during that span.<\/p>\n
His best performance, however, came in last Friday. Coleman bolted through the right side of the line for a 40-yard touchdown on Kentwood\u2019s first play from scrimmage in overtime. He finished with 255 total yards, including a 62-yard touchdown reception.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is amazing,\u201d said Coleman moments after the win. \u201cCoach told me before (overtime) to keep my feet moving and to hold the ball tight and I got loose. My line was blocking for me, everybody came over to get me and I just kept my feet going. Just like my coach said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammate Devin St. Clair (wide receiver, defensive back, return specialist) was equally as key. St. Clair, who also is a track star, collected 189 yards of total offense (30 receiving, 16 rushing and 143 in returns) and supplied the game-ending interception against Edmonds-Woodway.<\/p>\n
As well as Kentwood has played the last seven weeks, it\u2019ll need to do even better Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In Issaquah, the Conquerors face a team from KingCo 4A, arguably the toughest league in the state. That conference has advanced a team to the state finals in each of the last five years. In addition, the state\u2019s top-ranked team (Skyline, which won last year\u2019s 3A state title before jumping back to 4A) and No. 10 Woodinville also come from the KingCo.<\/p>\n
Issaquah\u2019s two losses came to Skyline (38-0) and Woodinville (21-0).<\/p>\n
The Eagles earned their state berth with a 38-18 victory against fifth-ranked Marysville-Pilchuck, which was considered an upset only in looking at the rankings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe anticipated that,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
One thing Marysville-Pilchuck did do relatively effectively against the Eagles was run, which has been Kentwood\u2019s bread and butter since the school opened in the early 1980s. M-P rushed for 326 yards and two touchdowns against the Eagles.<\/p>\n
But for the Conks to get it done, it\u2019s going to come down to boys in the trenches.<\/p>\n
\u201cBall control,\u201d Norris said. \u201cWe have to be able to get first downs and keep their offense off the field. We\u2019re going to have to play our best game of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The football season is on the line for the Kentwood High football team. Figuratively and literally. Kentwood secured its first state berth since 2005 last Friday with a 35-28 overtime victory against Edmonds-Woodway. It was KW\u2019s seventh straight win. As much grit as the Conquerors (8-2) have shown during the seven-week stretch, they\u2019ll need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}