Islanders use big third quarter to break away from Totems

After a sluggish first half of football, the Islanders used a three-touchdown third quarter to break away from the Totems, beating Sammamish 35-13.

Mercer Island football was looking to celebrate its seniors with a big game in its league finale against Sammamish Friday at Islander Stadium. While it took awhile to get going, the Islanders got the effort they were looking for with big plays from (who else?) its seniors.

After a sluggish first half of football, the Islanders used a three-touchdown third quarter to break away from the Totems, beating Sammamish 35-13.

“I think our guys at the beginning of the game were a little bit distracted, but they persevered,” coach Brett Ogata said after the game. “At halftime they refocused, they regrouped and did a great job and that’s what you saw in the second half.”

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Both teams found the end zone on their respective opening possessions, with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Alfonso Gonzalez to Jack Counihan putting Mercer Island on the board midway through the first quarter. Sammamish responded on its next possession, with Colton Boyle finding Kyle Tracy on a nine-yard touchdown pass to even the score early in the second quarter.

But neither team managed to score again until after the break, when Mercer Island saw touchdowns from three of its seniors put the game out of reach. Jack Vassau rumbled into the end zone from six yards out to give the Islanders a 14-7 lead with 7:51 left in the third quarter. On the Islanders’ next possession, Gonzalez found George Pallis from four yards out to give Mercer Island a two-touchdown advantage. Then with the clock winding down and the Totems trying to convert 4th-and-4 just inside midfield, a 60-yard pick-six by Jack Counihan on the final play of the third quarter gave the Islanders a commanding 28-7 lead.

Ogata said it was big plays like Counihan’s pick-six that the Islanders missed in the first half.

“We were playing good defense but we weren’t making big plays,” he said. “In the second half, we had the big pick-six by Counihan, we probably should’ve had another one with Eric Kim that was called back. Offensively, we made so many mistakes in the first half with holding penalties, bad snaps, miscounts on our snap counts, things like that. We got those adjusted and we were a lot better.”

Mercer Island added a final home contest to its schedule, and will take on Bellingham’s Sehome Mariners at 7 p.m. next Friday at Islander Stadium.

“It’s one more chance for these seniors and the team to play together, we’re excited,” Ogata said of next week’s game. “Obviously we want to go to the playoffs, but if you go to the playoffs, only one team is going to come out with a win at the last game of the year. We have a chance to end with a win, and that’s always a good feeling going into the offseason.”

Game notes

With his third-quarter touchdown pass to George Pallis, Alfonso Gonzalez broke Mercer Island’s single-season touchdown pass record, throwing his 23rd of the year. Gonzalez wasn’t done, throwing his 24th in the fourth quarter on a 24-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Caputo.