By DeShaun Presley
The Seattle Medium
Little Brother vs Big Brother? David vs Goliath? Some would say, well those who don’t bleed maroon & gold that is, about O’Dea’s challenge going into last Friday’s matchup against Eastside Catholic. However, The O’Dea faithful would beg the defer as the program has historically been a major football staples in the state of Washington and was off to an impressive 5-0 start in the 2019-20 campaign as well as 3-0 in Metro League play.
The nationally ranked (13th) Crusaders of Eastside ( 5-0, 3-0 ) rolled into the electric atmosphere of homecoming night looking to protect home field and notch another victory under their Metro league proverbial belts.
Lights bright, cheers in full swing and referees in position as kickoff begins and the Fighting Irish take possession. O’Dea senior running back Cameron Daniels and Junior quarterback Melvin Hopkins, Jr’s mentality from the outset was to run with physicality and brut strength. Daniels, who leads the the Irish in rushing with 789 yards on 120 carries 6 touchdowns on the season, ran with patiences when needed and physical smash mouth, down hill running between the tackles when his number was called. Hopkins, a former tight end and back up quarterback in the 2018-19 campaign performed impressively, completing 2 of 4 passes for 17 yards and rushing for 32 yards on 6 carries in the first half.
Up front, O’Dea’s impressive, well-coached offensive line, anchored by senior Jalen Dixon and junior Owen Prentice dominated in the trenches providing sizable holes for multiple ball carriers. While defensively the Irish were stout up front, and their stingy, disciplined secondary proved to be a thorn in the side of the Crusaders holding them scoreless in the first quarter and looking for answers.
In an attempt to rise to the occasion and equal the intensity O’Dea, Eastside began the second quarter with more bounce in their step and put the ball in the hands of senior running back Gio Ursino early and often. At times, this seemed to be the right idea as the Crusaders were able to march the down the field, crossing mid-field only to be forced to punt the football back to the Irish, but a muffed punt put Eastside in scoring
position from the 11-yard line. Eastside quarterback Kobe Mausau completed a strike to senior tight end Tavarus George on a 6-yard slant route to bring the score 7-6 Irish. With under just a minute to go, the Irish struck gold once again as Hopkins tossed a 6-yard reception to the back of the end zone to wide receiver Cooper Mathers, bringing the score to 14-6 in favor of the Irish.
As the second half began and adjustment were made it seemed like O’Dea Head Coach Monte Koehler and the Irish had figured out the Crusaders game plan holding them to 0 points in the second half and scoring 14 unanswered points.
As the clock ticked down to triple zeros pandemonium struck the O’Dea sideline after a amazing performance on their part.
“ I first want to give a shout out to my offensive line, my quarterback Melvin Hopkins who played his butt off,” said O’Dea running back Cameron Daniels about his monster game. “We just came out and played O’dea football.”
O’Dea did just that, played old-school, hard-nosed, traditional football providing them a statement victory and serving notice to the rest of the state, country for that matter and taking the victory 28-7.
