By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
Coming off a 32-27 victory over non-conference opponent Bellingham last week, Chief Sealth (1-0) faced off with the Lakeside Lions in a Metro League matchup. Lakeside, who lost 35-15 in their season opener against Shorewood High School, were hoping to avoid an 0-2 start to the season.
Lakeside started the game by snatching the momentum away from Chief Sealth. Offensively, Lions quarterback Thomas Ephrem threw two touchdown passes. Ephrem found Nisseffo Nolawiheir on a slant route for a 26-yard gain and followed up with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Zhou. On the play, Zhou absorbed the hits of two Seahawks defenders before scoring. In addition to Ephrem’s passing, Jacob Blanchfield’s ability to navigate through the defense was essential to the success of the offense.
The Lions’ defense helped fuel their offense early on, forcing three-and-outs, making tackles, and limiting the Seahawks’ time of possession. With both the offensive and defensive game plans being executed to near perfection, Lakeside held a 14-0 lead as the first quarter came to an end.
Lakeside’s defense opened the second quarter with a tackle for loss, a quarterback sack, and forced an incomplete pass, resulting in another three-and-out for Chief Sealth. Following the punt, Chief Sealth would make a momentum-changing play by forcing Lions’ running back Blanchfield to fumble, which was recovered by Chief Sealth’s Graham Hull. Hull returned it 55 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 14-7.
From that moment, everything began to click for the Seahawks. Defensively, they managed to bring Lakeside’s rushing attack to a halt by getting tackles that kept their opponent at the line of scrimmage, disrupting Ephrem’s passes with good coverage, and forcing wide receivers to drop the football. Putting it all together, Chief Sealth forced a turnover on downs.
Taking over from their own 36-yard line, Chief Sealth looked to score with under five minutes remaining till halftime. They managed to find success by rushing right up the middle, thanks to Micah Policarpio. The consistent running play calls helped open the field up for Issac Martinez to throw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Guy, Jr., tying the game at 14. Kicking the ball off to Lakeside following their score, the Seahawks’ special teams unit would kick it short and recover the football on the 25-yard line.
Following the recovery, the Seahawks scored on a trick play as Martinez handed Jay Johnson the football, who found Guy for his second touchdown of the half on a 25-yard pass. When the dust settled, Chief Sealth had scored 20 unanswered points, and the Lions found themselves down 20-14 with under a minute left till halftime.
Despite allowing a 20-point surge from their opponent, Lakeside managed to drive downfield courtesy of Ephrem’s passing ability. Ephrem would connect with Zhou for 40 yards and Efe Elaiho for nine yards on the first two plays of the drive. Facing a fourth-down play near the end zone with 11 seconds left in the half, Ephrem found Zhou in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown to regain the lead at 21-20 going into halftime.
Although down by a point to start the third quarter, Chief Sealth received the first possession of the second half and took their time. Possessing the ball for six minutes, Martinez found Johnson for 40 yards, running back Xavier Nguyen rushed for four to five yards on each carry, as the Seahawks made their way to the goal line. Martinez would finish off the 80-yard drive with a five-yard ‘quarterback sneak’ for a touchdown.
Taking the lead for the second time throughout the game, the Seahawks’ defense held Lakeside scoreless for the remainder of the second half. Forcing three-and-outs and dominating the line of scrimmage allowed them to completely disrupt Lakeside’s offense.
Chief Sealth’s Norman Ngonevolalath would put the game out of reach when he intercepted an Ephrem pass that he returned for a touchdown.
Shutting their opponent out in the second half played a critical role in Chief Sealth winning 36-21 in their first conference win of the season. Improving to 2-0, the Seahawks will host their first home game of the year against Franklin. Lakeside, who fell to 0-2, will be on the road again next week as they’ll face Roosevelt with a chance to add a win to their record.
Pictorial Highlights of Chief Sealth vs Lakeside
