Shorewood football plays for state playoff berth Friday at Shoreline Stadium

The Drill Team never fails to please

By Aaron Bert

Photos by Lisa Hirohata

Shorewood High School will play the Lake Washington Kangaroos on Friday, November 2, 2018 with the winner advancing to the Washington state football tournament. The T-birds have not played for a potential state playoff berth since their 2002 season.

Lake Washington plays in the KingCo 2A/3A league and finished #2 (3-6 overall / 3-2 league). Lake Washington lost their first 6 games of the season, but won their last 3 in order to qualify for the #2 seed in the KingCo.

   October 26, 2018

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	F
Arlington	15	12	7	7	41
Shorewood	0	0	17	0	17

Shorewood played their last WesCo 3A league game on October 26th at Shoreline Stadium. The final score was not what the Shorewood Thunderbirds had in mind at the beginning of their crossover game with the Arlington Eagles. Both teams came into the contest as the number two seeds from their respective divisions and the outcome would determine the opponents each would face in the week 10 winner to state game.

# 52 Tom Bert recovers a fumble.

Shorewood came into the game riding a two game losing streak, having dropped a close game to Edmonds-Woodway on October 12th, and then an extremely disappointing overtime loss to Marysville-Getchell 28-27 on October 19th. Shorewood needed a win to re-establish momentum and continue building on a successful season by any other measure so far.

Arlington had other things in store and completely dominated Shorewood from the opening kick-off. Shorewood was down some key players due to various reasons, but regardless, the Eagles were ready to play and it showed when they took 4 plays and 65 seconds to march down the field on their first drive and score a touchdown. It was a theme which would manifest itself through the rest of the game.

Save for a few moments of excitement in the 3rd quarter, when Shorewood was able to capitalize on two turnovers and put 17 points on the board - this was not the same team which had dominated opponents in the first half of the season and started with a 5-1 record.

#12 Spencer Osborne carries the ball

For Shorewood this next week could very well be the final chapter on a season which can be marked by two distinct tales. The first tale unfolded with excitement and an element of disbelief -- the team had coalesced -- it was playing complete football games and finding ways to win.

To be honest - no one was expecting the T-birds to sprint out to a 5-1 record, to include dominating wins over Meadowdale and Shorecrest. The team walked with a bit of swagger - the fan base was growing and the coaches seemed to be setting the right tone and getting maximum effort out of the players.

#21 Dashawn Alexander runs for a gain

Then the team stumbled against Edmonds-Woodway and Getchell and now Arlington, and the second tale is showing a team struggling to regain some of the magic from the first six weeks - to re-establish the winning ways and make a run into the state playoffs. The tale still needs an ending! Come see the excitement on Friday!

Some takeaways:

• Junior WR/DB Spencer Osborne took the snaps at QB during the 1st quarter as starting QB David Snell sat out. Osborne stepped up to the job and was able to move the Shorewood offense;
• Shorewood was missing the deep threat with Senior WR/DB Jaro Rouse not suiting up;
• Shorewood gave up 4 sacks - the most of the season;
• Shorewood started Sophomore OL/DL Tyson McGill at center, as starter Tres Zeigler played slot on offense. With Junior David Lopes at left guard, and Sophomore Tom Bert at right guard, the T-birds will have a solid core of offensive linemen to build around come next season;
• Shorewoods linebacking corp played a solid game;

Next Game:

Friday, November 2nd - 7pm, Shoreline District Stadium

Shorewood T-Birds versus the Lake Washington Kangaroos.

Winner to state game.