The game had ended, the scoreboard was shut off, but the Mercer Island football team had assembled at midfield. Players and coaches embraced with tears in their eyes, bidding their farewell to the gridiron, with some players lying down in the south end zone staring upward and taking in the moment.
“Nothing can replace this moment right here,” said coach Brett Ogata, looking on at his players. “They’ll be out here probably another 20-30 minutes and that’s OK with me. We’ll just be out here hanging out and enjoying this moment.”
Mercer Island football had one last victory in them to end the season, beating Bellingham’s Sehome Mariners 35-21 in a week-ten football game Friday night at Islander Stadium. For the 21 senior Islanders on the varsity squad, it meant ending their high school careers on a high note.
“Coach kind of talked about it earlier. He said, ‘not many people have the opportunity to have their last game be a win,’” relayed senior quarterback Alfonso Gonzalez. “It’s kind of a special feeling, the last game ever and just come out with a win, it feels really nice.”
Gonzalez, who became Mercer Island’s record-holder for single-season touchdown passes last week, added to his record while leading the Islanders against Sehome with five touchdown passes, finishing with 29 on the season. His final strike was a 43-yard bomb to MI’s single-season record-holder for touchdown receptions, receiver Jack Counihan, four minutes after the Mariners cut the deficit to one possession to trail 28-21 in the game’s final quarter.
“First drive of the game, we ran that exact same play and [Sehome defensive back Taylor Rapp] picked me off,” Gonzalez said. “We knew he was aggressive, he’s a really good player. He was going to come down on the slot receiver, so I knew I was going to have Jack over the top one-on-one, and I just put it up there for him.”
“We’ve had a lot of those in our career, it was kind of a special way to go out, doing the same thing we’ve been doing for four years,” said Counihan, who finished the season with 13 touchdown receptions.
While Ogata admitted the goal for his team was to make it to the postseason, he said ending on a high note was what he loved about the opportunity to play a week-ten football game. Amidst the tearful camaraderie between players whose high school football careers just ended, it was clear that sentiment was shared.
“You play with these kids for four years, some of them longer. When you think back, you can remember the fun you had, and the last game kind of sums it up,” Counihan said.
Mercer Island finished its season fourth in the KingCo 3A/2A standings with a 3-3 league record and 5-5 overall.
