A new era of King’s football — power running and playing for Class 1A title
Even though he played football at Pacific Lutheran University in the 1990s — one of the eras of high-flying passing — Jim Shapiro insists that he prefers the old-school Frosty Westering brand.
The one that ran the football with power — at will.
Well, that style has Shapiro and his sixth-ranked King’s High School program in the Class 1A state title game for the first time in school history.
In a stunning transformation, King’s beat No. 10 Montesano at its own game, 28-25, in the 1A semifinal Saturday afternoon at the Tacoma Dome.
Usually it is the Bulldogs (11-2) who wear down opponents by getting them in the run-game grinder. Not Saturday — that battle was won by King’s (12-1), which rushed for 308 yards on 46 carries.
And these were not misdirection or outside runs, either. They were inside helmet-zingers, led by Andrew Cline (138 rushing yards) and Caleb Perry (126 yards).
“I am not toss-sweep Frosty,” Shapiro said with a smile. “I am inside-zone Frosty.”
Equal to the outcome was King’s special teams, which recovered a pooch kick on a kickoff in the second quarter that set up Cline’s 15-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.
And when Montesano’s Keegan Darst intercepted and returned a Koa Wilkins’ pass 45 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter to cut King’s lead to 21-18, the Knights responded with a blocked punt by Edmund Sundquist, which led to Wilkins’ 2-yard scoring run 5 1/2 minutes later.
Nursing a 28-18 lead, King’s ran 12 consecutive run plays, chewing up nearly seven minutes of the fourth quarter. That would have never happened under Shapiro in the past decade.
“They’ve got four guys back there … that are interchangeable parts,” Montesano coach Terry Jensen said. “You’ve got to cater your offense around your talent and make some adjustments. When you’ve got four guys like that, you better be running the ball, or you are doing something completely wrong.”
Oddly enough, it was Montesano that likely taught Shapiro that lesson the hard way in 2012.
Led by quarterback Billy Green, King’s was the top-ranked team in the state when it faced the Bulldogs in the 1A quarterfinals. Green injured his hand in the game, the Knights did not have a running attack to turn to — and they lost, 17-7.
“I watched that film (Friday) night,” Shapiro said. “It reminded me of what we needed to do — get the ball out to our playmakers, and then, in the end, run the football.”
After a King’s turnover, the Bulldogs cut their deficit to 28-25 on a hook-and-ladder play, which ended up being Jake Herzog’s 10-yard touchdown strike to Logan Truax with 1:27 to go.
But it was a fitting ending for King’s when a running back — Perry — recovered the onside kick.
“When you have one of the best running back coaches in the state (Roy Coleman), and coach Shapiro is great at the play-calling … it has not been hard to transition between passing it and running it,” Cline said.
This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 9:27 PM with the headline "A new era of King’s football — power running and playing for Class 1A title."