By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
On Friday night, the O’Dea Fighting Irish, the third-ranked team in the WIAA State 3A football playoffs, found themselves matched up against Peninsula High School to kick off the sweet sixteen in this year’s 3A state tournament. The Fighting Irish, who are led offensively by Jason Brown, Jr., were forced to play without Brown due to injury, and despite not having the four-star running back, O’Dea managed to adapt their next man up mentality to compete against the Seahawks (8-3) with an opportunity to advance to the elite eight.
The Fighting Irish (9-1), who were coming off a 56-20 victory over Edmonds-Woodway 56-20 in the round of 32, were up against a Peninsula team who averaged 36 points a game during the season. In order to advance to the next round, O’Dea would have to find a way to stop the high-powered offense from the Seahawks.
Leading 14-7 at the end of the first quarter, O’Dea looked to pull away after they blocked a Seahawks punt that was recovered and returned for a touchdown by Darien Maragh to extend O’Dea’s lead to 21-7 early in the second quarter, and with a two-score lead the Fighting Irish appeared to be in control of the game.
Although Peninsula couldn’t make their way into the endzone, they were able to score points on 35 and 28-yard field goals, which resulted in a 21-13 deficit going into halftime.
Down by just one possession to begin the second half, the Seahawks looked like they were gaining some form of momentum after forcing O’Dea to a quick three-and-out. Even with Peninsula retaining possession quickly they turned the ball over on downs.
Following the turnover on downs, the Fighting Irish would score on a three-play drive that ended with a 51-yard touchdown run by junior running back Sirkeenan Hart.
The 51-yard touchdown pushed O’Dea ahead 28-13, but this didn’t stop the Seahawks from keeping this game competitive, as they would string together a four-play drive which ended with a 65-yard touchdown pass and in the blink of an eye the two teams were only separated by only one score.
With Brown out of the lineup, the Fighting Irish had to look to others offensively, and O’Dea Head Coach Monte Kohler found his answer in Hart. Hart would finish the game with nine carries for 188 yards and three touchdowns, including an 80-yard run and 33-yard scoring run to help O’Dea prevail over Peninsula 42-28.
“He [Hart] did a wonderful job,” said Kohler about Hart after the game. “Obviously, we’ve got kids up front that do a nice job, he stepped in not missing a beat. Being down a couple of players, Sir stepped in and did a wonderful job.”
Although the Fighting Irish gave up a season-high 28 points and allowed Seahawks quarterback Payton Knowles to throw for 265 yards and two touchdowns, they managed to record two interceptions which helped them advance to the elite eight where they’ll face off against 11th-seeded Stanwood next Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Game time is currently scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
