Five football storylines to watch for Peninsula, Gig Harbor in 2018

High school football season is right around the corner for the Peninsula Seahawks and Gig Harbor Tides, who opened fall camp this week.

The 2018 season is shaping up to be an exciting year for the two local programs, as both teams return strong rosters and look like playoff contenders. Here are a five storylines to keep an eye on:

Peninsula’s non-league schedule

There’s no soft landing for the Seahawks to kick off the 2018 season. Peninsula opens its season on the road in Seattle against defending Class 3A state champion and perennial powerhouse O’Dea on Aug. 31. The Fighting Irish toppled Metro foe Rainier Beach 38-11 in last year’s title game to earn the program’s fourth state title.

With O’Dea, Eastside Catholic, Garfield and Rainier Beach all on the rise, the Metro League is seeing a resurgence. It makes sense Ross Filkins would want to test his team against some of the state’s best competition to open the season.

A win here would bring all sorts of attention to Filkins’ program, build hype, generate belief amongst the team’s players, establish Peninsula’s as one of the state’s premier 2018 programs and catapult Peninsula into the rest of the season with all the momentum in the world.

But a close loss to the defending state champions — on the road — wouldn’t be the end of the world, by any means.

It won’t get much easier in the second game, when Peninsula hosts Class 4A power Skyline High School at Roy Anderson Field on Sept. 7.

But Peninsula won’t be intimidated by this schedule. The Seahawks return third-year starting quarterback Burke Griffin, who will have full command of the offense and figures to be one of the area’s best quarterbacks in 2018.

Also, Peninsula returns a large, talented senior class and should be among the state’s top teams.

So what would constitute success in this two-game slate?

Going 2-0, obviously, would be a major success. A split would have to be considered a success, too, by most. Going 0-2 would have to feel disappointing, but it probably depends on how those losses look.

These games don’t count toward the league standings and once the postseason starts, everyone essentially goes in with a clean slate, anyways.

But a good showing would go a long way toward putting Peninsula squarely into the state title conversation.

And if the Seahawks knock off both O’Dea and Skyline? Watch out.

Gig Harbor’s progress

Gig Harbor went 5-5 in coach George Fairhart’s first year, and while the season had some memorable moments, the Tides never seriously threatened the South Sound Conference pecking order.

Gig Harbor beat up on the league’s bad teams, but lost to Peninsula in the Fish Bowl (31-21 loss) and weren’t competitive against league champ Timberline (27-10 loss) or in the postseason (24-6 loss to Edmonds-Woodway).

For Gig Harbor to take the next step, the Tides will need to play better against the best.

Gig Harbor returns plenty of talent, and the Tides will have a chance to prove themselves early. Gig Harbor opens the season at home against Spanaway Lake on Aug. 31, but it’s the next two weeks that will be the most interesting: A road game on Sept. 7 at Class 4A South Puget Sound League school Curtis, and then again, on the road on Sept. 14 againstTimberline.

Similar to Peninsula, a strong showing in the season’s early games could be a huge momentum builder for the Tides.

Year two for Fairhart

There were some glimpses of the type of system Fairhart wants to implement at Gig Harbor High, and it’s a change from the pass-first, ultra-fast days of Aaron Chantler, the school’s previous head coach.

There will likely be a bigger commitment to the run and an emphasis on being physical.

Gig Harbor will need its muscle against schools like Timberline and Peninsula, especially in the trenches. If Gig Harbor — a school traditionally known for its strong line play — can dominate up front, it should free up plenty of opportunities for the team’s explosive receiving corps.

I’d expect this to be Fairhart’s blueprint for success this year.

How far can Peninsula go?

While the “What if?” game is always a dangerous one to play, I’m going to play it here. If quarterback Burke Griffin doesn’t go down with a fourth-quarter injury in Peninsula’s 2017 quarterfinal game against Rainier Beach, the Seahawks probably find themselves in the state semifinals the following week.

With Peninsula having already scored 15 points quickly in the fourth quarter at Roy Anderson Field, the Seahawks had retaken a 28-24 lead. Rainier Beach answered with a touchdown of its own, taking back the lead, 31-28.

With just over five minutes remaining and Peninsula’s offense firing on all cylinders, it looked like a perfect situation for quarterback Burke Griffin to lead the Seahawks on the game-winning drive.

Except Griffin didn’t come out for the drive. He had been injured on the previous offensive drive, the play before he rushed for a touchdown — his third rushing touchdown of the night.

The rest, as they say, is history. Peninsula’s offense sputtered without its starting quarterback. A team that had all the confidence in the world that it would come back and win the game was left devastated.

Peninsula ended up losing the game, 38-27.

Once again, the Seahawks were stuck in the state quarterfinals, lamenting what could have been.

But the past is in the past, and Peninsula is eager to break through this year. With Griffin returning, along with plenty of talent all over the field, could this be the year Peninsula makes it through?

What’s the SSC going to look like?

From top to bottom, it’s hard to argue against the Class 4A South Puget Sound being the area’s most intriguing league.

But the 3A SSC could be a sneaky-fun league this year, too.

Peninsula and Timberline have slugged it out atop the league since the conference’s inception in 2016. With Gig Harbor expected to be improved this year, could the Tides make it a three-horse race?

Is there another team that could pop up, like a Yelm, or a Capital?

While there will still be a couple uncompetitive programs, the SSC should be a strong league. One fascinating thing to watch is how the schedule has been laid out this year: Gig Harbor takes on Timberline early, in a huge week three showdown, while Peninsula gets Timberline around the midway point, on Sept. 27.

If Gig Harbor and Peninsula both manage to knock off the Blazers, it will set up the most highly-anticipated Fish Bowl in years, on Oct. 19. The Fish Bowl is already a great event, on its own, even if nothing is at stake. But with a league title on the line? Sign me up.