By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
In a must win game for playoff seedings, the Garfield Bulldogs faced the O’Dea Fighting Irish in the regular season finale for both teams. Coming into the game, Garfield had lost back-to-back games against Eastside Catholic and Rainier Beach, as they scored season lows of 10 and 15 points, respectively.
Defensively, the Bulldogs allowed 30 and 21 points, which was unusual for a Bulldog team that had only given up 7 points per game in their five wins.
Since losing 24-17 to Eastside Catholic September 30, O’Dea had a combined total of 80 points in their wins against Roosevelt and Ballard. In back-to-back games, the Fighting Irish won by 28 points or more and defensively allowed a total of 14 points.
The Bulldogs had first possession to start the game, but their drive plagued by holding penalties and an incomplete pass forced Garfield to punt just two minutes into the game. Just like the Bulldogs, O’Dea’s opening possession lasted two minutes before having to punt the ball away as the game turned into a scoreless defensive battle in the first quarter.
The Fighting Irish’s one-two rushing punch of Jason Brown, Jr. and Christian Winn helped end the scoring drought for O’Dea. The ability of Brown and Winn to move the chains got the Fighting Irish down to the one-yard line where quarterback Luke D’Anna would take it into the endzone to give O’Dea a 6-0 lead.
After scoring the game’s first points, the Fighting Irish defense would come alive with a big hit from free safety Antone Arajuo that resulted in a fumble that recovered by O’Dea at the 35-yard line, giving them a short field for their offense to work with. Garfield’s defense responded immediately as defensive end Pule Leatigaga hit D’Anna forcing a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Yemoni Howell.
Later in the second quarter, O’Dea’s offense would once again gain traction. With the ball inside Garfield’s 10-yard line, O’Dea’s Antone Arajuo showed his athleticism as he scored on a bootleg play that he ran to perfection, extending the Fighting Irish’s lead to 12-0.
With 12 seconds left in the second quarter, O’Dea would dash Garfield’s hopes of scoring any first half points as defensive back Sage Salopek would intercept a pass by Garfield quarterback EJ Caminong that was intended for Jamaica Myers near the endzone to maintain their 12-0 lead at the half.
Holding a 12-0 lead going into the third quarter, O’Dea would maintain the football for five minutes before Quinn White would bounce off a Garfield tackle and run for a 15-yard touchdown.
Ahead by three possessions, the Fighting Irish would open the flood gates. Rasaan Thomas, who primarily plays defense, scored on a 20-yard touchdown run, and D’Anna would throw a 10-yard touchdown pass to White for O’Dea’s final touchdown.
O’Dea’s lead grew to 33-0 before giving up a late touchdown once the game was out of reach. The Fighting Irish, now 6-1 in Metro League play, defeated Garfield 33-6 to cap off their regular season. With the loss, Garfield fell to 4-3 in Metro League play and fourth place in the Mountain division.
