Eastlake head coach Gene Dales stood in silence at the 30-yard line Friday night and watched hundreds of black-clad Redmond students swarm their home field — still in disbelief that his Wolves just fell 24-21 to winless Redmond.

“They played extremely tough, they were emotional,” Dales said of the Mustangs. “This makes their year right now. Obviously, it’s a big win for them. They deserve their celebration tonight.”

While crediting his opponent, the Eastlake coach had few answers as to what went wrong for his team — a squad that entered the game ranked No. 4 in the state by the Associated Press.

“We had our game plan and we weren’t able to execute it,” Dales said. “They were able to hang on to the ball and kill a lot of clock.”

The Mustangs, who never trailed, possessed the ball slightly over 15 minutes in the first half, and 15 in the second half for a total of 30:13. Eastlake had the ball just 17:47.

A large factor in the Mustangs’ clock control was junior quarterback Michael Conforto, who had 29 carries for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

“I can’t give enough credit to my line, they worked their butts off tonight, and I’m just so proud of my team,” Conforto said.

As a team, Redmond carried the ball 62 times for 296 yards.

“Our offensive staff does a fantastic job of preparing every week and they got these kids to believe in the common schemes of what we’re trying to do … that if we run the things the way they’re supposed to be run, we can be successful and we can move the football, and that’s exactly what we did tonight,” Redmond head coach Mike Pluschke said.

Even with Redmond’s clock dominance, Eastlake was never out of the game.

After Andrew Rohrbach’s 25-yard field goal gave the Mustangs a 24-13 lead with 5:27 left, the Wolves worked their way right back in the contest. On the first play of the ensuing drive, running back Cameron Hunt took a pitch to the right side, followed his blockers, and broke free for a 59-yard TD. Eastlake responded with a unconventional two-point play when quarterback Kelby McCorkle fumbled, and it was recovered by a lineman in the end zone for a PAT.

The Wolves followed by forcing the Mustangs to go three-and-out for the first time. Eastlake’s offense, however, fizzled on its next drive. Starting at their own 44 and with 3:14 go to, the Wolves generated just 2 yards before turning the ball over on downs.

“We told our guys, ‘Look we need to play a four-quarter game for the first time in our lives. We’re young, we need to get turnovers, we need to swarm the football,'” Pluschke said, of his defense. “We wanted to play with a nasty attitude darn it, and we did that.”

Redmond broke a scoreless tie at the 8:40 mark of the second quarter when Conforto scored from 5 yards out, completing a 12-play, 6 minute, 30 second drive.

Eastlake answered four plays later, when Hunt, who had 15 carries for 137 yards and three TDs, scored from 2 yards out.

The Mustangs followed with another long, methodic 10-play drive, capped by a 10-yard TD run from Cole Hardwick with 2:53 left in the first half.

Eastlake had a quick answer again, scoring just 43 seconds later on another 2-yard run from Hunt. The play was set up by a 60-yard bomb from McCorkle to Sam Olmstead. A missed extra point, and a botched 44-yard field goal attempt by Eastlake, left the score 14-13 at halftime.

Redmond forced Eastlake into two second-half turnovers, including a crucial fumble at the start of the third quarter. After what appeared to be a 14-yard TD from Hunt was called back on a hold, the Wolves fumbled the ball to the Mustangs. Redmond turned around and ate up nearly 8 minutes of clock on its next drive before Conforto scored from 2-yards out.

Conforto also shined on the defensive side of the ball, recovering a second-half fumble.

Asked if he was determined, Conforto said “You have no idea,” noting this was the first time in five years Redmond had defeated its rival Eastlake.

“We just said ‘Enough is enough’ and we just took it to them,” he said.

For the Wolves (0-1, 3-1), the loss was tough to swallow, but Dales knows there’s no time to sulk with league foe Issaquah (1-0, 2-2) right around the corner.

“Issaquah now is a make or break game,” Dales said.