Federal Way figured to give White River its first big test of the high school football season after the Hornets had started the season by going 5-0 and outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 256-23.
Led by its defense that completely shut down Federal Way, White River passed that test with a 17-0 victory over the Eagles in a 3A North Puget Sound League game at Arrow Lumber Stadium on Thursday, Oct. 10.
“They just came out and they were ready to play,” said Federal Way coach Marcus Yzaguirre of White River (6-0, 5-0 NPSL). “They did an awesome job preparing, and we came up with a slow start.”
Federal Way was at less than full strength at quarterback and on the offensive line, and it showed. The Eagles, (3-3, 3-2) were held to 17 yards of offense: 67 yards passing and minus-50 yards rushing. Yes, minus-50 yards, with most of those losses coming on eight sacks.
The Eagles were without starting quarterback Anthony Marchetti, who injured his ankle two weeks ago against Enumclaw and backup Jacob Yan missed a couple of series Thursday after getting shaken up. Receiver Jay Sinclair played quarterback for those two series, each ending with a sack after he was unable to handle bad snaps.
Federal Way had four turnovers: three Yan interceptions and a fumble on a bad snap. Yan and Sinclair were under duress the entire game, with little to no time to set up and throw. The running game was nonexistent, with just four carries for positive yards and a long of five yards.
“Jacob is coming back from a sprained wrist on, so it’s hard for him to catch that ball and those type of things happen,” said Yzaguirre of the mishandled snap.
Of the offensive line issues, Yzaguirre said, “we’ve got to get that cleaned up.”
“We had a couple of our offensive linemen gone,” Yzaguirre said. “One had a funeral. His grandparent died, so he was gone, and we had to plug in another guy. Then we had another guy who was injured, but (the Hornets) did an awesome job.”
White River had scored at least 41 points in every game before Thursday and had scored 119 points in its previous two games. Points and yards were much harder to come by against Federal Way, which allowed just 207 yards and White River’s two touchdowns came on short fields after Eagles miscues.
The Hornets scored first, midway in the first quarter, on a 23-yard touchdown run by Parker Fry. That came one play after Federal Way star Zamarie Tellez had a punt go minus-6 yards.
White River scored again with 12 seconds left in the first half on a pass from Chaz Strickland to Ray Palmer. The drive started at the Federal Way 49 after a Yan interception and it was aided by an offside penalty – one of six times the Eagles were offside – just before the touchdown pass.
After the Hornets kicked a 29-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to take a 17-0 lead, Federal Way had its best drive of the game. The Eagles drove to the White River 18 before three straight Yan incompletions and a sack ended the drive and any real chance the Eagles had of making a comeback.
The Eagles defense was the bright spot and Yzaguirre said that unit did a good job of being prepared.
“It’s tough because we win as a team and we lose as a team,” he said. “So even if the defense stepped up, we can’t blame the offense.”
Tellez, who has committed to Eastern Washington, drew a lot of attention from White River’s defense. He had three catches for 23 yards and two carries for 10 yards.
Federal Way figures to have a much easier time the next three weeks as it concludes the regular season with games against Beamer, Kentlake and Thomas Jefferson who have a combined record of 2-15. Wins over those teams would send the Eagles to the playoffs.
“The next three teams are coached very well,” Yzaguirre said. “We’ve got to take every day as it is, but yes, I am confident we will bounce back. It’s the same scenario as last year and we can finish third (in the NPSL) but we’ve got to clean some stuff up.”
