Before last Friday’s football game at McKenzie Stadium, someone asked who I thought was going to win — Mountain View or Evergreen.
Now, we had picked Mountain View, but my honest answer was “You know what? I just want to see a good game.”
Friday’s game was the 10th football game I have covered this season, which is pretty good considering it was only Week 5.
But of those preceding nine games, the closest margin of victory was 22 points.
So I was just hoping for a game decided late in the fourth quarter, perhaps on the final possession.
Evergreen and Mountain View certainly delivered that.
In fact, a lot of games on the Week 5 scheduled delivered. So, in honor of passing the halfway point of the football regular season, let’s take a look back at some of those highlights.
WASHOUGAL-RIDGEFIELD: It’s great when the game we pick to be our game of the week turns out to be THE game of the week. Washougal-Ridgefield lived up to that, two teams playing for first place, going back and forth before being decided on a 72-yard interception return by Jayson Graham for a touchdown in the final minute.
Now Washougal sits alone atop the 2A Greater St. Helens League at 3-0. But Washougal’s position is even better when you consider there are three teams in the league at 2-1 — Ridgefield, Mark Morris and Woodland. Those are the three teams Washougal has beaten to reach 3-0.
Teams left on Washougal’s schedule are all 1-2 or 0-3 in league, so things are looking really good for the Panthers to secure the 2A GSHL title.
And that led me to the question: When was the last time Washougal captured the league title in football?
The answer to that was 1999, when Washougal was a member of the Class 2A Southwest Washington League, which included La Center, Stevenson, Woodland, Columbia-White Salmon, Ridgefield and Castle Rock.
MOUNTAIN VIEW-EVERGREEN: This was the game I covered, and it was every bit as entertaining as our “game of the week.”
This game was decided by a fumble-causing tackle by Jaxson Morris at the 1-yard line as Mountain View looked like it was going in for a game-winning touchdown with 23 seconds.
I said before this game that the key for Evergreen winning would be big plays and turnovers. And the Plainsmen certainly got both.
But the thing that impressed me most was the offensive line grinding out a drive that ate more than five minutes of clock before Mountain View’s final drive of the game.
UNION-COEUR D’ALENE: Speaking of an offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage, consider what Union did in its opening drive on the road in Idaho.
The Titans went 73 yards on 19 plays, chewing up nearly 10 minutes of clock after receiving the opening kickoff against Coeur d’Alene. The only drawback of the drive is it only resulted in a field goal. But it certainly set the tone for the rest of the game as Union came away with a 40-20 victory.
WOODLAND-HOCKINSON: Several 2A GSHL coaches said in the preseason they expected Woodland to be competitive this season under new coach Sean McDonald. But with back-to-back wins over Columbia River and Hockinson, the Beavers find themselves right in the playoff hunt in the 2A GSHL.
The Beavers are 2-1 in league and face winless R.A. Long this week. The way the Beavers run the ball and the way the Lumberjacks have struggled against the run, Woodland will be a decided favorite to go to 3-1.
Then, if other outcomes break Woodland’s way, the Beavers could be in position to secure one of the 2A GSHL’s four playoff berths with a win over Hudson’s Bay on Oct. 13.
CAMAS-KAMIAK: You could say Camas quarterback Taylor Ioane had the perfect game in the Papermakers’ 56-8 win over Kamiak in Everett last week.
Ioane completed 17 of 17 passes for 236 yards and six touchdown passes to six different receivers. He also rushed for another touchdown.
“I have never heard of something like this in over 40 years of coaching,” Camas assistant coach Rick Harrington said.
The performance gave Ioane a region-leading 1,331 yards passing on the season and 16 touchdown passes.
The question was posed wondering why Ioane wasn’t a player-of-the-week nominee after such a performance.
The answer to that is he was a nominee the previous week, and we have a stipulation to our player-of-the-week vote that the same player can’t be a nominee in consecutive weeks. We try to spread the exposure around.
So I guess Taylor will have to do it again this week as the Papermakers return to Clark County to take on Evergreen on Friday at McKenzie Stadium.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/preps coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
