Mount Si Wildcats skunk Kennedy in season opener
September 5, 2012
By Michele Mihalovich
By Calder Productions
Mount Si High School running back Joey Cotto runs the ball 12 yards for a touchdown against Kennedy Catholic in Burien Aug. 31. See a slideshow of photos from the game at www.snovalleystar.com.
Two virtual rookies set the tone within the first few minutes for the Mount Si High School season opener against Kennedy Catholic in Burien, ending in a 30-0 victory for the Wildcats.
Mount Si junior Nick Mitchell, in his first start as quarterback on varsity, threw a 46-yard pass to senior Trent Riley for the Wildcats’ first touchdown.
Riley, 6 foot 2 inches and 194 pounds, sat out his junior season after suffering a knee injury in basketball. After the final whistle Aug. 31, he caught five receptions for 94 yards.
“His sophomore year he had seven or eight touchdowns,” coach Charlie Kinnune said before the game. “That’s incredible for a sophomore. Now he’s bigger and better, and we’re real happy to have him back.”
Mitchell took his new leadership role seriously, studying hours of Kennedy game film in preparation for Friday’s game.
Because he knew Kennedy is fond of blitzing from the left, his offensive line kept Lancer giants Cole Madison, 6 foot 6 inches and 270 pounds, and Desmond Thompson, 6 foot 7 inches and 315 pounds, busy while he backed out of the pocket and headed right.
Mitchell ended the night with 22 attempts and 10 completions, for 158 yards and the one touchdown pass to Riley.
Senior running back Joey Cotto ran 12 yards for a Mount Si touchdown just before halftime.
Riley Reed, a Mount Si senior running back, ran the ball for a 73-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Kinnune has admitted that he relied heavily on junior kicker Cameron Van Winkle last year, and wanted to work more with the rest of his offense team.
But the University of Washington commit’s powerful leg played an important part in Mount Si’s win, putting 12 points up on the board.
Van Winkle, who was just named to The Seattle Times 2012 preseason all-state football team and played for Team USA this summer in Texas, made all three of his extra point kicks, and 38-yard, 40-yard and 36-yard field goals.
The Wildcats defense held Kennedy to four, goose-egg quarters.
Kennedy seniors Drew Thompson and Conner Richardson were about the only two Lancers to touch the pigskin.
The two switched off as quarterback and receiver, and repeatedly ran one of two patterns. The quarterback would either hand off or pass a lateral, with the receiver running to the outside, only to be stopped by a Wildcats defensive player at or near the line of scrimmage.
Kennedy was limited to 149 yards of total offense, with only 3 yards passing.
Kinnune said he was very impressed by the Wildcats defense.
“Hank Van Liew, Zack Blazevich, Mclain and the rest of them, they just played great,” he said.
Overall, Kinnune said he was happy with the fourth-ranked Wildcats at the season opener, as well as Mitchell’s first start.
“He played well and opened fast,” he said, adding that there was some miscommunication between Mitchell and the coaches, “but that’ll be easy to work on and fix.”
Kinnune said he knew his team would come to Burien and make some scores, “but I never expected to shut out a team ranked ninth in the region.”
Meanwhile, Mitchell said he would spend the week studying game tapes of Issaquah in preparation for the Sept. 7 home opener at 7 p.m.
Michele Mihalovich: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com.
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