Friday evening was “throwback night” at Pete’s Pool, as fans got a real notion of what football was like before electronic scoreboards were in vogue.
The last score that the rabid Hornet fans saw read 92-0 in favor of Enumclaw High, a sign of trouble before the scoreboard went dark midway through the first quarter and didn’t come back on for the remainder of the tilt. Enumclaw won 19-14 over Sumner’s winless Spartans to keep the red-hot Hornets’ overall record an untarnished 3-0.
Ahead 13-7 just before intermission, the Hornets were making overtures toward scoring again. Enumclaw signal caller Riley Carel, who had already watched Andrew Gamblin rumble in from five yards out and completed a 11-yard touchdown strike to Coleman Clyde, completed a 20-yard laser to wideout Terenn Houk, who made a difficult catch to set up the impending score. Suddenly, the men in stripes declared it was halftime, much to the chagrin of Enumclaw coach Don Bartel, who had not been kept abreast of how much time remained.
“The whole thing with the scoreboard was sad, pathetic and just plain ridiculous,” Bartel said. “What if our game next Friday against Lakes, which is essentially for the league championship, was at Pete’s Pool. I couldn’t even assure the Lancers that they would have a functioning scoreboard.”
Sumner took the second half kickoff and moved down the field slowly and steadily using the running of junior mauler Cody Haavick. The Spartans would not be denied as Alex Griffith bulled his way into the end zone from two yards out to cap off Sumner’s second touchdown march, allowing SHS to pull ahead 14-13 after Zach Bowers legged his second extra-point kick through the uprights.
Enumclaw began to display a renewed since of urgency in the fourth quarter, producing the only sustained drive of the contest. The drive that made it 19-14 was highlighted by two crucial Carel jaunts around left end. The first came on a third-and-15 play, when Carel managed to accomplish a 23-yard naked bootleg around left end; Carel later called his own number again and, following a three-blocker escort, outraced the Spartans to put the Hornets ahead for keeps 19-14.
Keith Ross, Sumner’s coach and a former EHS gridder and graduate, admitted it is always fun to return to his old stomping grounds.
“To me this is the only true Friday night lights, grass field venue left on this side of the state,” he said. “The field was in wonderful shape and what a beautiful evening it was.”
Ross remained upbeat.
“We’ll come out next week with the same positive attitude we came into this game with,” he said. “Your next game is always the most important game on your schedule and we’ll be trying to erase that zero in the win column. That’s just the way it is in this competitive league; you don’t have time to dwell on defeat.”
As irate as Bartel was about the malfunctioning scoreboard, he recognized the efforts of his offensive line and running backs. “Andy Holdener, Andrew Gamblin and Austin Grau were out there doing their thing tonight,” he said. “I think between those three and Carel we ran the ball 40 times for around 200 yards. Those guys follow their offensive line’s blocking and they block well for one another as well.”
Enumclaw travels Friday to Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood to tangle with a relentless Lakes bunch that has thrashed Bonney Lake, Peninsula and White River thus far. While the miserly Enumclaw defense has given up a paltry 12 points per game, Lakes is a different breed of animal as it showed last Friday on White River’s turf. The Hornets, known for their vaunted rushing attack, had just seven net rushing yards.
Gamblin acknowledged that the Lancers are a formidable foe, but not unbeatable.
“If we play error-free football and give it 100 percent on every down offensively and defensively, there is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to compete with Lakes,” he said. “They beat us at Pete’s Pool last year but they by all means did not have an easy time of it.”
