ISSAQUAH — By the time the Tommies settled down on the gridiron, they had some serious climbing to do
Early mistakes led Marysville-Pilchuck to a first-round loss, 49-13, at Issaquah in the Class 4A state tournament.
“We came up against a pretty good team and we made a couple of mistakes early and you can’t do that at this level,” said M-P coach Brandon Carson.
Issaquah jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, after marching down to score to start the game, forcing a fumble and stopping M-P on a fourth-and-one situation later on in the half.
“They’re a big, physical team and they’ve got really good linebackers,” said Carson.
M-P scored its first touchdown in the second quarter on a 10-yard Tylor Klep quarterback keeper, but the halftime deficit remained at 21 after the Eagles countered with a TD to make the score 28-7.
The second half saw Issaquah’s defense dig in and hold M-P out of the end zone, except for a 14-yard touchdown run by Zach Miller near the end of regulation.
“I thought we did OK at moving the ball, but we just couldn’t string those gains together,” Carson said.
Meanwhile, the Tommies had a hard time stopping the multifaceted offense of Issaquah, which featured the combination of quarterback Braden Bouwman and receiver Evan Peterson, who twice connected for scores, and bruising running back Nick Landdeck, who added another.
M-P finished the season with a 7-4 record —a far cry from midseason when the Tommies were 3-3 and facing elimination nearly every week since.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” Carson said. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of talent here the past two years and this group really reached down and won four straight weeks when we needed. It would have been nice to keep playing, but I can’t say enough about this group.”
M-P has 25 seniors on its roster and will be split the following season, with a number of players headed to Marysville Getchel.
Nevertheless, Carson said these past three years — all with playoff appearances — have helped the program reach a point where the postseason has become an expectation.
“That’s now our goal every year, to get into the playoffs,” he said.
