Peninsula High offense struggles to find footing in loss to Lakes

Yes, the Peninsula High football roster is made up largely of young players.

But coach Ross Filkins isn’t using that fact as an excuse for the Seahawks’ early struggles.

Peninsula High couldn’t get its offense going on the road against Lakes, dropping a tough 33-14 game on Friday night against the Lancers. Junior quarterback Ryder Johnson managed just 78 yards through the air, going 6 for 17 with an interception.

“We’re not young anymore,” Filkins said. “We do a lot of work in the offseason. I don’t care what grade these guys are in. We need to play better. We need to play 48 minutes of Seahawks football.”

Blame for Friday’s tough loss spread across the entire roster.

“We’ve got to block better, we’ve got to take care of the ball,” Filkins said. “We had dropped snaps. We’ve got to catch the ball better and get some yards after contact. But other than that, everything is great.”

Peninsula (2-2 overall, 1-1 SPSL 3A) did, however, have a couple of exciting plays for touchdowns. In the first quarter, Evan Johnson took a kickoff 85 yards for a score. And right before the half, Johnson found Deboreae McClain in the corner of the end zone after a Lakes penalty on the play prior.

But overall, the Seahawks struggled on both sides of the ball.

“It all comes down to execution,” Filkins said. “You’re playing really good teams in this league week in and week out, you cannot go out and execute that poorly in a game like this in this league.”

Lakes’ 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior wide receiver Chris Hunter had a big game. With a defender draped all him in the third quarter, Hunter somehow emerged with the ball, out-muscling the defensive back, and took it 67 yards for a touchdown. It was one of many explosive plays for Lakes (4-0, 2-0).

“I feel very confident,” Hunter said. “I don’t think anyone can go up with me.”

Hunter’s got plenty of confidence, and the Lancers look like they have their swagger back this year, too. Hunter finished with 147 receiving yards. Senior quarterback Jaiave Magalei passed for 238 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and adding another on the ground. Junior running back Andrew Bostic tallied a pair of touchdowns and 85 yards on 19 carries.

While Peninsula has dominated the Class 3A South Puget Sound League the past three seasons, Lakes is looking to get back to winning league titles.

“Our motto this year is ‘Back on top,’” Hunter said. “I think we’re going to get there soon. If we keep working hard every week, we’re going to keep getting better every game.”

Execution was the key for the Lancers, Hunter said.

“We had to go out and execute better than (Peninsula), and I think we did that tonight,” he said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Peninsula High offense struggles to find footing in loss to Lakes."