"Defending 2A champ Pullman routs Steilacoom" -- Sept. 3, 2006

BY CALEB BREAKEY
THE OLYMPIAN

Dodging two tackles and stiff-arming another, Steilacoom sophomore quarterback Greg Herd broke through the left side of Pullman's defense for a 35-yard run alongside his weary teammates in heat approaching 90 degrees.

A Pullman defender was injured on the play, so both teams huddled. Herd trotted toward the group of Sentinels, dropped to his right knee and took off his helmet, uncovering a shiny, shaved head.

Drops of sweat zigzagged from his head to chin as he inhaled two breaths, looked toward the Greyhounds' huddle, then lowered a pair of squinted eyes to the ground.

"This heat," Herd said after the game. "Everyone gets tired in the heat."

The Steilacoom Sentinels' exhaustion from playing both ways Saturday afternoon against the 2A reigning champs showed early in the second half, when the Sentinels put their hands to their waists in-between the Greyhounds' rushing attacks in a 36-7 loss.

Steilacoom players said a lack of depth hurt them. Fatigue crippled the team's tackling throughout the game as Greyhound running backs routinely evaded a defender or two before being dropped.

"If we would have wrapped up, and tucked our heads and drove our legs, there would have been a change in the game," said Herd, who finished with 57 passing yards and 90 yards total. "I'm not saying we would have won, but the intensity on the field would have been much higher."

Greyhounds' sophomore running back Cody Weber, playing in his first varsity game, found several holes in the Sentinels' line, cutting his way through defenders for 123 yards on nine carries.

After losing "two big horses" to graduation last year -- running backs Mike Thomas and JC Sherritt -- the Greyhounds will turn to Weber and another sophomore back, Mike Meines, to keep their spikes sharp and push for yards.

Meines jetted into the end zone for the Greyhounds first score with 7:42 left in the first quarter and crisscrossed with Weber throughout the game, gaining 79 yards on seven carries to go with his lone touchdown.

"Those two sort of came out of the woodwork as being the guys," said Pullman coach Bill Peterson. "It's coming together."

Weber credited the win to Greyhounds senior quarterback J.T. Levenseller, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another in his 89 yard total performance.

"He was really on in the option game," Weber said. "That's what really did it for us. He would take it for 10 yards every single time or give it to me for seven yards."

Several times Levenseller couldn't find an open receiver, so he shot up the middle and demoralized the Sentinels' defense.

"We didn't take the quarterback on the option, and that just killed us," said Sentinels head coach Eric Miller. "They ran the option 25 times today, which has got to be a record."

The Sentinels only score came with 3:06 left in the fourth quarter, well after the Greyhounds ran out its second-stringers -- and it happened accidentally. Senior running back Ryan Tober broke through the middle for a 45-yard run on a Sentinels misaligned play.

One of the team's running backs ran a separate route from the play, but his path lured a Greyhounds linebacker from the middle, opening the field for Tober's touchdown.

The score didn't boost the Sentinels' spirits, but getting on the board was nice, Miller said. One look at Herd after the game encapsulated the team's post game demeanor.

He slowly trudged to the locker room beside a Sentinels lineman, speaking softly to the air in front of him but never turning to face the teammate. His thoughts were stolen. His concentration muddled.

"Greg was under pressure the whole time," Miller said. "For a sophomore against those guys, he did a nice job. He's going to be a good one."