KIRKLAND - Cascade Christian saw its 31-game 1A Nisqually League winning streak end at the hands of Cedar Park Christian last season.
The Cougars hadn’t forgotten.
The fifth-ranked Cougars rolled past No. 10 Cedar Park Christian, 28-0, on Friday Night at Lake Washington High School for their first shutout of the season, sixth straight victory and some sweet revenge.
“We had a terrible feeling in our gut last year,” senior center Chevy Johnson said. “We didn’t come out last year playing the way we wanted. But we made a statement tonight: this wasn’t just for us, this was for our brotherhood.”
“We came out with the mindset that we had to win this game.”
Cascade coach Randy Davis challenged his team to come out and play physically and the Cougars responded. Cedar Park Christian almost recorded as many turnovers on downs (5) as first downs (6) and held Eagles running back Daniel Watts to a season-low 66 yards.
Meanwhile, Cascade’s Jackie Wood, Hunter Austin and Riley Ramos each tallied at least 69 rushing yards as the Cougars’ ground game combined for 251 yards.
“We needed to get after it,” Davis said. “I got in their face and said they had to get physical and they answered the call.”
Cascade’s 20-14 loss against the Eagles last season was its first Nisqually loss since 2006.
But Cascade came out and made life miserable for the Eagles’ offense – the same Cedar Park Christian offense that came in averaging 35 points per game and beat Bellevue Christian, 50-6, last week.
“It was hard to match their intensity,” Cedar Park Christian coach Todd Parmenter said. “They didn’t like the fact that someone in their league beat them last year. It felt like a revenge game for them and they just came out and flat out beat us.”
The Cougars trusted the ground-and-pound game throughout, as each of their first two scores came after starting from inside their own 20.
Cascade traveled 87 yards its opening possession before Austin capped the 17-play drive with a 2-yard run into the end zone.
Cascade scored again its next possession, this time showing its big-play capabilities with a 59 yard touchdown pass from Jaelin Goldsmith to Robert Terhune to put the Cougars ahead 14-0 in the second quarter.
Austin added another goal-line TD in the third quarter and Wood ran in from 11 yards out in the fourth to put the game away.
The victory vaults Cascade’s record to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in league, while Cedar Park (4-3, 2-2) suffered its second Nisqually loss in three games.
“It was big that we come out and win the way we did tonight because last year’s loss was in the back of our kids’ heads all week,” Davis said. “This was the best game we have played all year.”
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