By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
High School football is officially underway at none other than Memorial Stadium. With the sunset and iconic Space Needle overlooking the field, the O’Dea Fighting Irish and Bothell Cougars would faceoff to start the 2022 season. After falling short 27-21 to Kennewick in the state quarterfinals last season, the Fighting Irish look to get back to their dominating and winning football culture that they’ve carved out for themselves.
O’Dea’s Jason Brown, Jr., a four-star athlete according to ESPN and the #1 ranked running back in the state of Washington, looked to set the tone early for Fighting Irish offensively. However, the Cougars would not allow Brown and the O’Dea offense to take control of the game right away, as Bothell would seize the first half momentum and open up a 13-0 lead. From forcing punts, false start penalties and getting an interception, Bothell’s early dominance had the Fighting Irish looking very undisciplined – which is very uncharacteristic for this storied program.
Down 13 points before halftime, O’Dea would finally find their rhythm offensively during the last two minutes of the half. Moving the chains with their ability to run and throwing the ball every so often the Fighting Irish would catch the Cougars by surprise with a screen pass from quarterback Luke D’Anna to Cole Zilmer that appeared to go for a touchdown, but a costly penalty would wipe away their potential 7-13 deficit.
Instead of being down by six points, the Fighting Irish found themselves down 13 and having to climb out of a two touchdown deficit in the second half. Bothell would receive the second half kickoff, and immediately the Fighting Irish defense forced a punt which gave them good field possession to start the second half. Sticking to their game plan of running the ball, O’Dea placed the ball in the hands of their running backs which led to a 25-yard touchdown run by Brown to give the Fighting Irish their first points of the game.
After finally putting points on the board, the momentum of the game completely shifted to O’Dea and their fan base. Leading 13-7 after the Brown touchdown, Bothell would reach the redzone for their fourth time in the game. Looking as if they were on track to score, the Cougars decided to go for it on 4th down. On the 4th down play, Fighting Irish defensive back Gabe Harris intercepted a pass from Bothell quarterback Ryder Jacobsen and returned it to the 30-yard line.
On the very next play, Brown would explode down the field for a 70-yard touchdown run to give O’Dea a 14-13 lead before the third quarter came to an end.
Defensively, the Fighting Irish eliminated unforced penalties, and looked like the well-disciplined team that fans have come to know. O’Dea’s defense did not allow Jacobsen to get comfortable in the pocket as they recorded sacks, tackles for loss, deflected passes and took the Cougars completely out of sync.
With their defense leading to offense, the Fighting Irish would score the games’ final touchdown when D’Anna found Darien Maragh for a 30-yard touchdown pass extending O’Dea’s lead to 21-13. Scoring 21 unanswered points in the second half, O’Dea would close out the game with their defensive line forcing an intentional grounding penalty and a turnover on downs to secure a come from behind win over the 4A cougars.
Getting off to a rough start for the 2022 season opener, O’Dea displayed why they’re always one of the best teams in the state. The Fighting Irish will play their first Metro League matchup against Bishop Blanchet next week Friday, September 9at Memorial Stadium.