Prep football notebook: Bonney Lake, Federal Way teams already down 1st- and 2nd-string QBs

Bonney Lake football coach Jason Silbaugh said he had just turned around to answer a question from his first-string quarterback, Dane Wagner, who had come out of the game with what they would discover was a fractured collarbone, before looking back onto the field at Husky Stadium in a Week 1 game against Bellarmine Prep.

There was his second-stringer, Adam Fahsel, on the ground with a broken ankle.

And now Federal Way coach John Meagher now knows what Silbaugh is going through.

Among the rash of injuries to key contributors throughout the South Sound, Federal Way lost its starting quarterback, Washington State University commit D’Jimon Jones, who broke his foot against Camas. He will in a cast for the next four weeks, Meagher said.

Then Gabe Togia, Federal Way’s second-string quarterback, who had taken reps with the first-team offense when Jones would move to receiver, broke his leg in an 18-15 loss to Tahoma on Friday.

Meagher said Togia is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Emerald Ridge quarterback Logan Skoda suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Jaguars’ 56-0 loss to Graham-Kapowsin on Friday, but co-coach Troy Halfaday said he’s hopeful Skoda and receiver DJ Resnik (ribs) will be back for next week’s game against Puyallup.

G-K was already without one of the nation’s top 2017 recruits — offensive lineman Foster Sarell (broken arm). Sarell said Friday that he hopes to play in seven or eight weeks, which would put his return right around postseason time as long as the fourth-ranked Eagles make it that far.

DISECTING THE POINTS

So this Lincoln offense …

It’s early, but the fourth-ranked Abes are averaging more than 55 points through the first three weeks after their 71-46 victory over Capital on Friday. The only time Lincoln scored more than that last season — when the Abes averaged about 48 points a game — was in a 91-0 win over Mount Tahoma.

Abes quarterback Joey Sinclair, who threw for 423 yards and six touchdowns, stopped short of naming all the Abes’ plays, but his study of Capital’s defense discovered plenty of holes.

“We know they run a 33 stack, and they run a cover 1, cover 3, cover 0 on the goal line,” Sinclair said. “and that’s where we got a lot of our points was on slants.”

On the other side, Capital found some weaknesses in Lincoln’s defense, too.

Capital coach J.D. Johnson said he changed some of the blocking schemes in the second half, getting his guards out and pulling. Running back Willie Broxton Jr. broke off two touchdown runs of more than 60 yards.

And freshman quarterback Grant Erickson — a distant relative of former Washington State coach Dennis Erickson — made Johnson’s plan for next week a bit easier (with senior Cody Jenkins still limited to defense only while his finger heals).

Erickson threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns, gaining confidence as the game went on. Johnson said he plans to start Erickson again next week and keep using Jenkins defensively (though he left late in the third quarter Friday with cramps).

“Their cornerbacks bailed quite a bit, so we knew we could get that hitch route underneath,” Johnson said. “We’ll take it. And we felt we could get them on screens and that worked a couple times with Zach Smith.”

Smith finished with seven catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns, not including an 85-yard kick return for a touchdown.

EXTRA POINTS

Thomas Jefferson might be the best 1-2 team around after close losses to G-K and Kentwood. The Raiders’ Kenneth Turner has 434 rushing yards, 99 receiving yards, has thrown for a touchdown and also has 11 tackles and a fumble return for a touchdown on defense. ... Three league title teams – Federal Way (4A SPSL Northwest), Emerald Ridge (4A SPSL South) and Franklin Pierce (2A SPSL) – are off to 0-3 starts this season.

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Prep football notebook: Bonney Lake, Federal Way teams already down 1st- and 2nd-string QBs."