Spartans ready to apply early season lessons as Crown slate opens
Skyline (2-1) VS. Roosevelt (3-0), Friday, 7 p.m.
When Skyline’s season-opening game against Bellevue came to an end, the 45-7 score looked anything but encouraging.
But three weeks later, and after a pair of encouraging wins, the Spartans are continuing to apply lessons learned at the hands of the Wolverines as the Crown Division schedule begins against Roosevelt.
“The whole team learned something,” senior quarterback Kilton Anderson said earlier this week. “It helped motivate us.”
Eastlake was the latest to feel the extra push the loss to the Wolverines provided, as Skyline senior defensive back Cole Blackburn intercepted a pair of first quarter passes and the rest of the defense combined for a smothering effort in a 21-6 win.
Anderson said the past two wins have served as a constant learning experience.
“This whole team is starting to come together,” he said. “We are getting better every week.”
Eastside Catholic taking nothing for granted on trip to Bainbridge
Eastside Catholic (2-1) @ Bainbridge (0-3), Friday, 7 p.m.
On paper, Eastside Catholic’s trip to Bainbridge this week to face a winless group of Spartans looks like a mismatch.
Crusaders’ head coach Jeremy Thielbahr knows football games are not won and lost on paper.
“I see an 0-3 team that is pretty good when I watch tape,” he said this week. “I think Bainbridge is a great challenge.”
A week after winning in come-from-behind fashion over Lake City, Idaho, on a touchdown from Harley Kirsch to Devon Arbis-Jackson in the final minute, Eastside Catholic will open the Metro League slate looking to defend the conference crown against a team yet to surrender fewer than 40 points in any of its three games, all losses.
But with goals that include another Metro League championship and run to the Tacoma Dome, Thielbahr said his staff and players are well aware any letdown during conference play could result in a missed opportunity, especially in a spirited environment against a hungry team in Bainbridge.
“I don’t think our kids take anything for granted,” he said. “They are starting to understand the little things.”
