Steilacoom coach Davies challenged team to play more physical. The Sentinels responded with 30-13 win over Fife
The Steilacoom Sentinels have faced two very difficult opponents in prior to Friday night’s SPSL 2A league opener against Fife, falling to defending 4A champion Union and perennial 2A power Lynden.
The lesson, according to Steilacoom head coach Colby Davies, the Sentinels learned from those two defeats was how to play physical. That physicality paid off with a 30-13 road win over the Trojans to even the Sentinels record at 2-2 this season, but more importantly get them off to a 1-0 start in league play.
“We know we’re good at running around and catching the ball,” Davies said. “We’re good in the air, and we’re good at defending the pass as well. We know we’ve got those guys. We’ve got to match physicality. That was something we learned last week against Lynden, for sure. We had a good week of preparation this week, and I think our guys understand what it takes to compete in a game like this, defensively.
The win could prove to be even bigger as the season goes on. The matchup with the Trojans often has league title implications, as it has the past two seasons.
“It’s huge, Davies said. “This is a big game every year. It’s had league title implications the past few years. We came up on the short side last year, and we didn’t play our best football. …We knew that this was a big game for us. Our guys we’re prepared for the moment and stepped up to the challenge. It was awesome to see them compete tonight.
One of the stars for the Sentinels was junior quarterback Chance McDonald, who is in his first season starting for the team after JJ Lemming graduated earlier this year. McDonald completed 13 of 18 passes for 188 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. McDonald had a connection with senior receiver Jayden Coalson early in the game. Coalson caught McDonald’s first four completions and finished the game with five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown.
“It comes natural,” Coalson said. “I tell my dude Chance, ‘I’m open, ain’t nobody guarding me.’ He does his thing and I do my thing.”
Coalson is just one of the Sentinels many offensive weapons, which also includes highly recruited junior Emeka Egbuka.
“It’s a family,” Coalson said. “That’s all brothers right there.”
And so far, McDonald has proven, like Lemming before him, that he has the capabilities of finding all those weapons.
“I’m very grateful,” McDonald said. “There’s a lot of options to choose from. It’s a dream of every quarterback to have receivers like this.”
The Sentinels controlled the first half, but a couple of long sustained drives by the Trojans, which resulted in a field and a touchdown, kept the score close at halftime with Steilacoom leading 18-10. The Trojans added a field goal early in the third quarter to trim the deficit to five at 18-13, but the Sentinels put the final 12 points on the board to put the game away.
“We just had a gameplan,” McDonald said. “We got to the locker room and we hyped up all of our guys. We had some penalties in the first half that kind of cost us. We needed to fix those. We just came out (in the second half) and had fun and made the right play calls.”
BOX SCORE
At Fife High School
Steilacoom 12 6 6 6 - 30
Fife 0 10 3 0 - 13
SCORING PLAYS
S – Logan Brady 6 run (kick failed)
S – Jayden Coalson 30 pass from Chance McDonald (pass failed)
F – Gabe Duenas 35 FG
S – Rasun Williams 4 run (pass failed)
F – Junior Faualo 5 run (Duenas kick)
F – Duenas 37 FG
S – Emeka Ebuka 21 pass from McDonald (pass failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Passing: S – Chance McDonald 13-18-1-188. F – Malakai Koke 0-1-0-0; Gabe Duenas 2-4-0-20
Rushing: S – Logan Brady 19-123-1; Chance McDonald 2-(-11); Rasun Williams 4-39-1. F – Elias Faitala 7-50; Malakai Koke 2-3; Jay Harper Brooks 6-5; Junior Faualo 21-85-1; Teigan Jansen 5-14; Khalil Messiah 1-11; Gabe Duenas 1-0.
Receiving S – Jayden Coalson 5-82-1; Emeka Egbuka 6-74-1; Isaiah Devane 2-32. F – Elias Faitala 2-20.