Week 4: What we learned from high school football in South Sound
Week four of the high school football season is in the books in the South Sound, highlighted by a Thursday doubleheader at Art Crate Field in Spanaway. Graham-Kapowsin, the top-ranked team in Class 4A, beat No. 10 Puyallup, 34-3. In game two, Lincoln got its revenge against reigning 3A Pierce County League champion Spanaway Lake, winning 41-14. Here’s what stood out to us from week four.
WANT EXCITING QUARTERBACK PLAY? YOU’VE GOT IT
At all levels of football, quarterbacks get a lot of attention. And rightfully so; it’s the most important position on the field, as evidenced by the mega-contracts routinely handed out to NFL QB’s.
Fans who took in both games of Thursday night’s doubleheader at Art Crate Field were treated to a show of two of the best quarterbacks not just in the area, but in Washington as a whole. Graham-Kapowsin senior Joshua Wood and Lincoln junior Gabarri Johnson are worthy of the attention that comes with the position.
Wood completed 17-of-23 passes for 137 yards and four touchdowns in the win against Puyallup. He rushed eight times for 68 yards and a touchdown. In the first half, he was 12-of-13 passing. It was a fluid, efficient effort that looked effortless most of the time.
“He’s such a great athlete, but the biggest thing, he’s just calm,” Graham-Kapowsin coach Eric Kurle said. “Under pressure, he’s calm. He makes plays. He controls what’s going on, controls his emotion. He’s accurate, he throws the right ball to the right people. He’s smart, he wants to learn. The biggest thing, he’s got that ‘it’, where he can take off and run if things aren’t there and make plays with his feet.”
Johnson followed up the first game with an equally impressive effort in game two. He completed 13-of-21 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns. And he ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries (a number that would be higher, if not accounting for sacks). That came against a strong Spanaway Lake secondary, too.
“I’m just comfortable with the game,” Johnson said. “Been with my coaches watching film, going over plays extra with the quarterbacks coach. I just came out here — it was just on me to play my game and do what I do. There was nothing more to it. Just trust my teammates. We’ve had time to practice with each other, rather than last year. Just trusting myself, trusting my teammates and we came out here and balled.
“A lot of growth, just trusting myself, trusting my receivers, letting the ball out when I know I can. Not hitching, doing too much thinking. Just playing the game and letting everything flow.”
Kurle said after the game that he thinks Wood deserves more recruiting attention.
“The Pac-12, those schools, they’re stupid if they don’t start looking at him,” Kurle said. “The way he played tonight, he can play anywhere.”
Sure, he’s a bit biased and maybe he’s just advocating for one of his players, but Kurle knows what Pac-12 talent looks like. Over the past decade, he coached Dylan Morris, who’s starting at QB for UW right now and Foster Sarell, a national five-star recruit who went on to play at Stanford.
Wood is considered a three-star prospect by 247sports.com and the state’s top quarterback in the 2022 class, ranked as the No. 21 player overall from Washington in his class. He holds offers from Eastern Washington, Idaho State and Portland State. Will any Pac-12 offers roll in? We’ll find out soon enough, but one thing is certain: Wood isn’t doing anything to hurt his chances.
Brandon Huffman, national recruiting director for 247sports.com, said he thinks Wood is ‘absolutely’ a Pac-12 caliber talent and if not for the pandemic, would more than likely have Pac-12 offers by now.
“What hurt him more than anything was not being the starter as a sophomore,” Huffman said. “By the time he got around to having varsity film, we were in March. Half the Pac-12 had a QB commitment before March even came around. At that point, normally your junior year is a big year. So the lack of an evaluation period, I think that really put him behind the eight ball. I think Wood is the best quarterback in Washington and easily could be playing in the Pac-12.”
Like Kurle, Huffman thinks Wood’s even-keel demeanor sets him apart.
“I don’t want to call him a game manager, because I think that undermines how dynamic a playmaker he is,” Huffman said. “But he runs that offense to perfection. He can beat you with his legs, arm, beat you in a myriad of ways. I think he’s really an all-around quarterback. He’s got that capability to extend plays with his legs. His best trait is his willingness to sit in the pocket and wait for the play to evolve. A lot of guys, if the receiver isn’t open within seconds, they’re tucking it and running.”
Huffman said he thinks Cal and WSU could be in the mix to offer Wood at some point. The Eagles’ QB will have to play the long game, at this point.
“Josh is severely underappreciated by college coaches,” he said. “I firmly believe in a normal recruiting year, he’s already committed.”
Johnson, meanwhile, already holds some Pac-12 offers from WSU, Oregon, Utah, ASU and Oregon State. He’s considered a four-star prospect by 247, the fifth-ranked player overall in Washington in the 2023 class and the No. 10 quarterback in the nation. Huffman said the growth he’s seen in Johnson between his sophomore and junior seasons has been obvious.
“It was his first time being the starter (last spring),” Huffman said. “He lost a lot of the weapons. When he got into the season, he was swimming a little bit. Now, the game is coming to him. He’s more calm in the pocket. I think the turning point for him was the Lakes game, he drove the length of the field in the final minutes to win the game. That was the moment he knew, ‘I could do this.’”
We wrote about more than just quarterbacks in our coverage this week. We wrote about Graham-Kapowsin’s stellar line play and how the Eagles look the part of the state’s top-ranked team in 4A. We wrote about Lincoln flipping the script on Spanaway Lake and the big day Lincoln’s defensive line had in the win, which puts Lincoln in the driver’s seat to win the 3A PCL.
YELM IS FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS
Last spring, Yelm needed a fourth-quarter touchdown and a two-point conversion to come from behind and beat River Ridge, 22-21 to preserve what would become an undefeated season.
It wasn’t so tough this time around. Yelm forced four River Ridge turnovers en route to a 50-6 blowout against the Hawks on Friday night at South Sound Stadium in Lacey.
“We’ve got weapons all over the place,” said receiver Kyler Ronquillo.
Sophomore running back Brayden Platt, already a Division I prospect with a mix of size, speed and field vision, carried just eight times for 98 yards after exploding for 225 last week against Timberline. But he scored two touchdowns and added an interception on defense.
“We were just getting the ball and running it up the gut,” said Platt. “There wasn’t a whole lot to it. Our defense was lights out, too.”
Yelm quarterback Palaina Hooper connected with Ronquillo for two touchdowns.
It’s worth wondering if Yelm is going to get any kind of serious test before the postseason rolls around. The 3A South Sound Conference doesn’t look particularly strong this year and Yelm is now 4-0 with wins over Lincoln, 4A power Mount Si, Timberline and River Ridge. All of those wins have come by at least 16 points. Platt and Ronquillo give defenses so many problems. So far, no one has figured out how to slow the Tornados’ attack down.
KENNEDY CATHOLIC GETS BACK ON TRACK
A 23-8 loss to Eastside Catholic and a 49-0 loss to O’Dea showed us that Kennedy probably isn’t the 4A state tournament contender that it was during the Sam Huard era. But the Lancers are still a contender to win the 4A North Puget Sound League, and Saturday’s 34-17 league-opening win over Tahoma was a good first step toward reaching that goal.
Kennedy responded to every challenge, retaking or extending a lead three different times on drives right after the Bears either tied or closed the gap. The last, on sophomore Isaac Syph’s catch and run for 45 yards pushed the Lancers three-point advantage back to 10, 27-17, with 9 minutes, 43 seconds left to play. Tahoma hung around until the fourth quarter, controlling time of possession in the second half.
Syph caught four passes from junior quarterback Mason Hyes for 96 yards and the touchdown reception. Sophomore running back Zach Schell rushed for 92 yards and the final touchdown of the game on 22 carries.
“It was a great game plan,” Syph said. “We went in, did our stuff. Came out with a victory.”
We felt before the season that Kennedy Catholic and Kentwood were the strongest contenders in the 4A NPSL. Kentwood beat Kentlake 45-28 on Friday night. The schools appear on a collision course to play for the league championship on Oct. 22, but there’s still plenty of football to play between now and then, and Federal Way could have something to say about that, too.
