Peninsula QB Bice, Seahawks cruise to state tournament in win over Arlington
When the Seahawks took the field for the second half of a week two matchup with Skyline, Peyton Bice began playing his best football.
It was after a pair of opening losses that the Peninsula quarterback led the team to an undefeated league record and 3A SSC title in his first year as starter.
“I think Peyton is just so much like our whole team,” said coach Ross Filkins. “If you look at Peyton’s numbers, ever since halftime of our Skyline game in week two, Peyton and our football team have been on a steady climb. It’s been really awesome to see. We’re playing our best football right now at the right time.”
In last week’s winner-to-state, loser-out district game against Arlington, Bice led a soaring Seahawks offense into the end zone five times, and the defense completely halted the Arlington offense, keeping them off the scoreboard entirely and holding them to zero rushing yards.
“[Shutting them out] was a tall order,” Filkins said. “Arlington’s offense was really balanced and dangerous. They’ve been putting up really strong numbers all year against some tough teams. What we were able to do was eliminate the run game.”
And when Arlington turned to their passing game, Peninsula was able to stop what Bice refers to as the strong point of the Eagles offense — the quarterback.
“[The defense] did a great job at getting pressure on the quarterback,” Bice said. “Keeping him guessing and keeping him on his toes was really important. That’s really what held them down.”
The 35-0 win places Peninsula in the 3A State Tournament where they’ll face Mount Spokane in the round of 16. If they take down the Wildcats in Spokane Friday night, they’ll move into the quarterfinals — a place they’ve been six of the last seven years.
After the departure of Burke Griffin, Peninsula’s most recent quarterback, the Seahawks turned to Bice to step up and take control of the offense.
Filkins believes he’s most certainly done it.
“He’s very capable,” Filkins said. “We’ve known that about him his whole time at Peninsula. He really pushed Burke Griffin hard the two previous years. Coming into the season, he was pushing a little bit too much and trying to make too much happen. What he’s done is he’s really calmed down and ran our offense and played really disciplined football.”
How did he get it done?
“I really feel calm back there,” Bice said. “I trust the whole team to execute and get the job done. I like to be an example for [the team], always there in the offseason working. All of the offseason work that we put in as a team really showed this season.”
And with the Seahawks in win-or-go-home mode, Bice knows what the team needs to do in order to move on to their seventh quarterfinals appearance in eight years.
“The key is really to be focused on ourselves and doing our jobs and playing our brand of football,” Bice said. “It’s really taking the first step of doing your assignment every play and trusting the man next to you. It’s trusting your brothers to do their job and to do your own, and things work out.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 6:00 AM.