SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Pressure!

THAT was what happened. So put an “x” by “it,” or exclaim “it,” or capitalize “it,” but that was the key why the Kennedy football team remains undefeated and the Lindbergh Eagles no longer have a “O” in the loss column in this big season game won by the Lancers, 48-21, at Highline Memorial Stadium Thursday.

Pressure!

The Lancers improved to 6-0 while the Eagles dropped their first in the Seamount to 5-1 in this game that had a lot of pressure in it. The winner likely will be champions of the league. The Lancers have games only against Hazen and Mount Rainier who are middle of the pack and bottom of the cellar teams both.

So this Lindbergh game was the only challenge that could come for the Lancers.

And it came!

“They were a good challenge,” said longtime Lancers head coach and athletic director Bob Bourgette, who took the Lancers to the state playoff finals in ‘05 and ‘06, losing only after OT, 14-7, to revered, nationally-ranked Bellevue, in the latter, and, to Ferndale the earlier year by a couple TD’s.

But what happened in this football game now, against these upstart Eagles coming in with zero losses?

“I knew they had a good football team,” said Bourgette.

But what happened? They were good, coach, being coached in their third year by Dominic Yarrington, who helped the Tyee program to build itself up for a playoff season the year after he left.

What, with 2:00 left in the second quarter, the Eagles ahead of you, 21-20, on their star runner, Frank Cange, taking a second kickoff return for a TD. What was happening?

And then, to make matters worse, the Eagles, with 1:11 left in the second quarter, who trailed, 28-21, thanks to a 58-yard Tre Watson touchdown run, were driving. The Eagles were driving on your guys, making it look kind of easy from their 28-yard line. They, in three plays, got to the Eagles’ 23-yard line, about to score on the next play. Their QB, Jack Allie, who threw for a ton of yards the week before against Mount Rainier in a 46-0 win there, threw a dart ball toward the end zone.

And...

In stepped Watson with a pick and took the ball 50 yards the other way to end the Eagles’ chance of tying or going ahead going into halftime.

But that was it, the pressure. That was why Eagles QB Jack Allie, who has thrown for nearly 2,000 yards this football season, threw that late momentum-changing pick of the first half.

That pressure, that wonderful pressure, from the likes of defensive ends Chris Petrie and Derrick Lewis, and nose guard Zach Hines, bulling through on that play to pressure Allie into throwing quicker than he wanted.

“He (Allie) needed to have held onto the ball for another count,” said Yarrington. “He needed to let the receiver get behind the safety.”

But Allie couldn’t have that luxury! The Lancers, pressure was on him, and, he had to throw early. He had to throw. He had to throw. Or be sacked!

“We wanted to get pressure on their quarterback, and make some things happen,” said Bourgette, who will be a hall of fame high school coach before his career is through. The Lancers are 98-3 in the Seamount in his tenure, with a staff like Dino Josie and Dino Peretti, and others there forever helping with defense, offense, skill players, etc.

What happens when that pressure comes from Petrie, and others like linebackers Nate Merrill and DeMario Carter?

“When we put the pressure on, good things happen,” said Bourgette.

The Lancers stopped the Eagles on their foes’ first attempt to score. Following a punt, Nolan Washington, on the Lancers’ first play from scrimmage for the game, went 69 yards, taking seven seconds and making it 7-0 Lancers after the Zach Zielinski extra point.

Then, after a fumble by both, the Eagles’ Allie tested the Lancers through the air, but safety Watson, picked off the pass and cruised 40 yards into the end zone to make it 14-0.

Allie was coming into this game with a lot of deserved accolades. He had shut down Mount Rainier, throwing for 355 yards on 23-38 passing, throwing to four different receivers for touchdowns in that wipeout win.

“He is a great passer,” said Watson.

And here comes that “pressure” word.

“If you give him time, he will pick you apart,” said Watson of Allie. “We got to him.”

Any one single guy doing that to Allie?

Watson mentioned the already-saids, Carter, Merrill, and, he also mentioned L.J. Jennings. But Watson mentioned others too, a whole lot of others.

“The team did a lot,” said Watson. “They are all my brothers. I would do anything for them.”

Down 14-0, the Eagles would come back on the very next play -- the kickoff return. Eagles speedster Frank Cange went 90 yards all the way to the end zone to make it 14-7. Four and out for the Lancers came and then the Eagles scored to tie it, 14-14, with 5:17 left in the second quarter, a long 11-play, 61-yard drive taking 4:50 time of possession.

The Lancers scored on their next possession, going 67 yards in seven plays in 2:45 time off the clock to lead, 20-14, on a Watson 14-yard run into the end zone. A bad snap caused a missed extra point.

On the ensuing kickoff the Eagles, Cange again, took the ball 80 yards, picking up a bouncing kick heading for the left sideline and sweeping across the field to the right and straight away into the end zone untouched to make it 21-20.

That caused Bourgette to take off his headset, looking a bit disgusted at that point, mouthing something under his breath. Probably something like, “Can’t we stop that guy?”

Kennedy scored right again , at the 1:11 mark, as Watson went in as above described. And then the Watson pick of Allie right before halftime sealed the momentum the Lancers’ way in this close game up to this point.

“They were a good challenge for us,” said Bourgette.

The second half kickoff returner, Cange, of the Eagles, was shut down by the Lancers’ special teams as whatever was said at halftime by Bourgette must have been “happening,” Powell said.

And the Lancers went on to score again and again, and again, and win this one going away.

“We pulled together and pulled this one out,” said Watson.

Watson ran for 126 yards on 10 carries in the first half, getting two TD’s and three for the game in accumulating 225 yards. That total did not include his “picks” and kickoff returns all purpose yards of another 75 yards.

Teammate Nolan Washington stuck on the receivers that Allie was trying to throw to, from the start, as Lindbergh’s momentum was stalled on their very first drive because of that. And, on offense, Washington, the Lancers’ swift QB, ran for 35 yards in the first half on seven carries and another 55 yards in the second half.

Those two led the Lancers’ offense, and, defensively, Allie threw for 113 yards on 11-for-25 passing, in the first half. But in the second half, he was shut down throwing for 50 yards and only throwing the ball about 10 times and completing less than half his throws.

Yarrington summed up why the Eagles did not beat the Lancers on this night, and, by the way, have not beat the Lancers since 1986.

“Tre and Nolan, those two guys are awesome,” said Yarrington, who, after coaching Tyee a year, got White River to the playoffs three of his four years there. “They just run through your tackles.”

And what else happened to cause Yarrington’s team to lose this one big after it was a little lead for Lindbergh late in the second quarter?

“They brought more pressure,” he said.

Pressure!

The Lancers go against Hazen at home on Friday at 7 p.m. at Highline Memorial.