The opening week of the high school football season was a big-time success for the Enumclaw and White River programs.
Now, the trick for both swarms of Hornets is to keep the momentum alive and improve to 2-0 on the young season. EHS will be on the road for a rare Saturday afternoon game, challenging Todd Beamer High at 1 p.m. at Federal Way Memorial Field. White River will take on its only nonleague foe of the season Thursday night at 7, when the Fife Trojans invade Arrow Lumber Stadium on the rural Buckley campus.
Here’s a quick look at how things went during last week’s season openers.
ENUMCLAW
The Hornets surely had revenge on their minds Sept. 4 when they squared off against Decatur High. A season ago, the Gators dealt EHS its only loss of the North Puget Sound League 3A campaign, pushing the Hornets to second place while delivering the league title to the Gators.
Thursday night brought a much different result, as EHS trilled the home-field crowd with a 30-14 victory.
The significance of the win – despite being a Week 1 affair – wasn’t lost on Hornet coach Mark Gunderson. The veteran head of the EHS program admitted the victory carried potential playoff implications.
Enumclaw and Decatur were deadlocked at 7 apiece at halftime, with the Hornets’ lone touchdown coming on a Paxton Patterson run. EHS took the lead for good when quarterback Gavin Trachte scored on a 1-yard sneak, padded its lead when Trachte connected with Kolt Kuzaro and Jason Feddema on TD connections and was helped along the way by a Brodix John field goal.
WHITE RIVER
Making the trek to Federal Way Memorial Field the evening of Sept. 5, White River kicked off the season with a 41-6 victory over an outgunned bunch from Thomas Jefferson High.
Things got off to an inauspicious beginning when White River lost a fumble on the game’s first offensive play. Quickly, though, things began looking up for the Hornets who rolled to a 28-0 halftime lead.
Rushing touchdowns during those 24 minutes were scored by Mason Locke and Blake Bargelt, sandwiched around TD tosses from Chaz Strickland to Parker Fry and Braden Thomas.
Strickland added two more scoring passes in the second half, a short toss to Bargelt and a 41-yard effort to Fry.
White River’s offense was pass-heavy against the Raiders, with the team totaling just 11 rushing attempts. Meanwhile, Strickland was on fire, completing 22 of 27 passes, good for 317 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
PHOTO BY KEVIN HANSON Hornet receiver Parker Fry returns to the sideline after the first of his two touchdown receptions against Thomas Jefferson High.
