3 takeaways from Enumclaw’s thrilling 28-27 win over Lakes
Enumclaw High School hosted Lakes in a non-league matchup on Thursday night at Enumclaw Stadium, in front of a packed house at Pete’s Pool. Fans were treated to a back-and-forth thriller, with the Hornets ultimately topping the Lancers, 28-27.
Here are three takeaways from Enumclaw’s win.
DYLAN WATTERSON CALLS GAME
On his first carry of the game in the second quarter, Enumclaw’s Dylan Watterson fumbled the football. It was recovered by Lakes.
His second carry went a bit better. Watterson took a handoff from Enumclaw’s 20-yard line and went untouched, 80 yards. To. The. House. At one point during his spirited sprint down the left sideline, he gestured his arm toward the end zone. He knew no one from the Lakes’ defense was going to catch him in space.
“You’re not catching that kid,” said Enumclaw quarterback Malcom Harper. “He knew no one was going to catch him. He’s just so versatile. He can catch the ball, run the ball. He’s one of the fastest kids out here. Once he gets the ball and gets where he’s going, you’re not stopping him.”
Watterson mostly plays slot receiver. The occasional running back responsibilities are new for him.
“I’ve kind of just been trying my best at getting back into that,” said Watterson, who also caught two passes for 65 yards and had a key interception on defense just before halftime. “I kind of screwed up on the whole fumble deal, not really used to the whole thing yet. I made sure that after the half, I kept the ball secure, made sure I wasn’t dropping anything. I ran as fast as I could.”
And that’s pretty fast, by the way.
“He’s dynamic, man,” said Enumclaw coach Mark Gunderson. “He’s fast. He can go. He’s quick, shifty and he’s got a burst. Teams definitely need to know where he is. He’s dangerous, for sure.”
NOFOA-MASOE’S INJURY WAS A TURNING POINT
At Lakes, they’ll be praying for senior Devon Nofoa-Masoe. He missed his entire junior season due to an ACL injury in his left knee.
Then, in the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s game, Nofoa-Masoe went down again. This time, an injury to his other knee.
As of Thursday night, it’s unclear what the injury is.
“We’re not sure,” said Lakes coach Dave Miller. “We’ll have to take a look at the MRI. He’s a difference maker when he was in there. He was starting to get the flow of things, starting to get a feel. Hopefully it’s not serious. Hopefully we can get him back at some point. … The first evaluation on the field was that we could be lucky. We’ll hope for the best.”
Nofoa-Masoe is universally loved at Lakes. He’s the consummate teammate, works hard and does whatever his coaches ask and whatever it takes for Lakes to win. He was a first-team selection to The News Tribune’s 2019 All-Area team as just a sophomore, thanks to his versatility on both sides of the ball.
And there he was, playing quarterback on Thursday night. Justin Brennan, last year’s starter, reclassified and is currently ineligible for Lakes. He’s appealing the decision. In the meantime, Miller turned to Nofoa-Masoe, who projects as a running back or linebacker at the next level. But he’s always been a natural athlete who can do everything. So he gave quarterback a go this summer.
“He throws the ball pretty good, he just needs the experience doing it,” Miller said. “With his running ability, we thought we’ll have him play a little quarterback until he gets that confidence. I was excited about him playing quarterback. Hopefully we can get him back.”
Before his exit, Nofoa-Masoe completed of 10-of-15 passes for 145 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed four times for 12 yards. On the play he went down on, Nofoa-Masoe rushed for 11 yards and a first down, putting Lakes close to the red zone with a chance to more-than-likely ice the game with a Lancers touchdown.
Once he went out, Lakes’ drive stalled. A 34-yard field goal attempt went wide left. Then Watterson scored the game-winning touchdown on the next play.
“It definitely hurts to lose a guy who’s your playmaker at quarterback,” Miller said.
That forced Lakes to use running back Leo Pulalasi as the “quarterback.” But essentially, it was a Wildcat offense and Pulalsi was either handing the ball off or keeping it for a run. That made Lakes one-dimensional and easier to defend.
“Leo did a great job, but Leo is a Division-I running back,” Miller said. “We want him to play running back. Leo did a great job stepping up but it just kind of took us away out of our gameplan.”
ENUMCLAW IS TESTED
The Hornets sought out difficult opponents in non-league play. In week one, they faced the state’s top-ranked 2A team, defending state champion Tumwater. Tumwater won, 56-6. This week, a matchup against Lakes, a program generally ranked in the top-10 in Class 3A.
“I feel like we probably could’ve played the best two teams we could’ve,” Watterson said. “It gets us ready to play some of these other teams. I mean Tumwater, shoot, I don’t even know how many state championship games they’ve been in. Lakes has been a great team for I don’t even know how many years. We’re kind of a small town. We’ve got a small team.”
Gunderson said he was happy to see his team come out on top this week after the difficult loss to Tumwater in week one.
“We didn’t play good against the No. 1 team in the state,” he said. “We definitely think we are better than we played. We didn’t think they were 50 points better than we were. Our pride was hurt last week. Win or lose, we wanted to play these guys tough here tonight. Our guys did that.”
Enumclaw begins 2A SPSL play next week Thursday against Washington High School at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 12:52 AM.
