When you’ve been in the Class 1A state football championship five seasons in a row, you tend to look more at your performance and less at the numbers in self-evaluation.
Case in point: Fifth-ranked Cascade Christian had no issues pulling away from an improving Port Townsend team for a 55-19 Nisqually League victory Saturday night.
The Cougars racked up 542 total yards at Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner – with 23 of their 52 plays gaining 10 or more yards.
But Cascade Christian coach Randy Davis also knows championship-caliber teams do not turn the ball over four times in a half, or commit eight penalties for 65 yards.
And that is what stuck in the craw of the Cougars’ coaching staff.
“If you are in the playoffs and did that, we’d be going home,” Davis said. “I am really starting to think it is our youth. Guys just don’t know.”
What really paced the Cougars was a good defensive effort. Aside from giving up a 72-yard counter inside run to Matt Cain in the first quarter to set up Port Townsend’s first touchdown (Jacob King’s 10-yard run), and King’s 98-yard kickoff return for a score early in the second half, the Redskins were bottled up.
And Davis has a different approach in the running game this season. He plays five running backs regularly.
Hunter Austin was the most consistent of the returners, and is the power inside runner. But Riley Ramos, who scored on a pair of touchdown runs Saturday, is also a bullish tailback.
If defenses crowd the middle, Robert Terhune, Jackie Wood and even H-back Nathan Roosendaal can do damage on the outside.
“Riley Ramos, he is right on my tail,” said Austin, who is currently batting a sore ankle and has been limited. “I love being able to have that when I am not feeling up to 100 percent – a guy just as good coming in and running it up the gut.”
Added Davis: “If a guy is having a tough night, we don’t feel bad playing someone else a little bit more.”
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@thenewstribune.com @ManyHatsMilles blog.thenewstribune.com/preps
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