Sumner coach asked more of his star athlete. He got it in Tre Weed’s big game against Bellarmine

Keith Ross sees so much ability in Tre Weed – as much as anybody he’s ever seen in the 20 years Ross been in the Sumner High School football program.

He pulled Weed aside earlier this week. The senior athlete leads the 10th-ranked Spartans in receiving, interceptions and is just behind Ben Wilson in rushing, but Ross knows he could do even more.

“I just noticed that some of the passion was gone,” Ross said. “He’s a great kid. I just wanted to make sure that he heard in a positive way that I need more from him.”

So on Friday?

“He comes out here and says, ‘OK, Ross – here it is,’” Ross said.

Weed did it all. He ran for a touchdown, caught a TD pass and returned an interception 60 yards for another score (one of his two picks) as part of his 271 total yards in Sumner’s 45-14 win over Bellarmine Prep on Friday at Sunset Chev Stadium.

Weed has offers to play college football for Syracuse, BYU, Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Yale, Air Force, Idaho, Hawaii, Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State and Northern Iowa.

Ross thought of Stanford’s Connor Wedington, the Sumner grad who was The News Tribune’s All-Area player of the year last season, when he thought of what Weed brings to Sumner football.

“He can do it all,” Ross said. “He’s very dangerous in all aspects of the game. When Tre is rolling, we are going to roll.”

He helped Sumner (5-2) build a 31-6 halftime lead against Bellarmine Prep (5-2) – scoring on a 41-yard run, a 35-yard pass and the 60-yard INT all in in the first half. He also finished with 21 carries for 152 yards, while Wilson, a Texas Christian University-bound linebacker, had 19 carries for 119 yards.

“Play great defense and run the ball and throw it. We’re back to what we do – winning,” Weed said. “It’s fun.”

Sumner has now won two consecutive games since back-to-back losses to No. 7 Graham-Kapowsin and No. 4 Puyallup. And has won in dominant fashion after a 28-0 win over Olympia last week.

This night wasn’t quite as fun for Bellarmine coach Brian Jensen as his days playing golf with fellow Central Washington University alums Ross and Beau Baldwin, who spent his Friday night as Cal’s offensive coordinator in its 37-3 rout of No. 8 Washington State.

Bellarmine Prep found some success relying on sophomore quarterback Marcus Stowers, who completed 16 of 27 passes for 225 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Christian Brown. Sumner held the Lions’ run game to 17 carries for 38 yards without sophomore Derrion Summers, who left with a leg injury and didn’t return.

But Stowers proved he’s the Lions’ quarterback of the future, dodging Sumner’s relentless pressure and making some poised plays. Expect Jensen to take the training wheels off in the coming weeks against G-K and Puyallup.

“We were super proud of Marcus,” Jensen said. “He handled the situation well for such a young pup.”

But for Sumner it seemed getting Weed back to big-play form translates to getting back to Sumner football – with long, grinding drives that eat clock and end with points.

It took over with 8:44 remaining in the game before Wilson scored his third touchdown on a three-yard run with 1:17 left – 15 plays later.

“That’s basically the definition of Sumner football,” Wilson said. “I feel like we’re getting back to running the ball and grinding every touchdown, every yard. Our offensive line is doing a great job of being warriors. That’s one of our philosophies is being warriors and they’ve been doing a great job.”

“We’re just grinding it out and kids are getting tougher,” Ross said. “They’re learning to play into the fourth quarter and we’re starting to come together at the right time.”

Weed had 10 more carries than he had last week and the second most he’s had this season – behind his 22 carries for 210 yards against Curtis. He now has 91 carries for 660 yards, 33 catches for 470 yards and, on defense, six interceptions.

“When he’s on, it’s pretty much over for any team,” Wilson said. “I mean, he is just that big of a player. He will make plays in a blink of an eye and he boosts everyone’s confidence so everyone else can make plays, too.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 2:01 AM with the headline "Sumner coach asked more of his star athlete. He got it in Tre Weed’s big game against Bellarmine."