The Peninsula Seahawks have received a lot of accolades for their offensive play this season, but it was their defense that came through in a big way Friday night.
Seventh-ranked Peninsula picked off Auburn Mountainview’s Domenic Rockey three times and held the Lions without a touchdown for the first three quarters to pick up a 36-10 win in a Class 3A South Puget Sound League game at Roy Anderson Field in Purdy.
Peninsula (6-1 overall, 2-1 league) moved into sole possession of second place with the win and set itself up to host a first-round playoff contest if the team beats Decatur and Enumclaw to close the regular season.
Auburn Mountainview (5-2, 2-1) had its lowest scoring output of the season as Rockey completed only 15 of 38 passes for 174 yards.
Peninsula’s secondary was shredded by Bonney Lake quarterback Chris Brown a week ago but had a nice bounce-back performance against Rockey and the Lions, defensive back Nate Carlson said.
“We planned on putting all three cornerbacks – me, Blake Dukowitz and Cole Madden – in passing situations because we’re all good in man-to-man coverage,” said Carlson, who had a 43-yard interception return in the third quarter.
“We learned some things about ourselves, and we got better,” Seahawks coach Ross Filkins added. “That was the nice thing about having 62 balls thrown at us last week – we got a lot of work in.”
Seahawks tailback Danny Welstad, who entered the game as the state’s second-leading rusher, ran the ball 36 times for 190 yards. He scored the game’s first touchdown early in the second quarter, capping a 13-play, 90-yard march with a 10-yard run on fourth-and-2.
Sam Shea hit field goals of 21, 30 and 28 yards as Peninsula built a 23-3 lead after three quarters.
Running back Victor Korchemniy had the Lions’ only touchdown, galloping 73 yards in the fourth quarter. He finished with 162 yards on 17 carries.
Peninsula quarterback Austin Filkins put the game on ice with fourth-quarter TD throws to Luke Plummer and Kory Vanderstaay.
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