The Juanita High football team struggled to hang on to the ball on Friday, Oct. 28 in a 24-14 conference loss to Mercer Island at Mac Field in Kirkland.
The loss, though, didn’t hurt the playoff picture for the Rebels (3-2 KingCo, 4-4), who clinched the No. 1 seed from KingCo’s Class 3A division with a week eight victory over Interlake.
Mercer Island took a 7-0 lead with 6:55 left in the second quarter and led 14-0 midway through the third quarter.
Juanita senior Salvon Ahmed scored on a 69-yard run with 4:13 left in the third quarter to make it 14-6, but the Islanders tacked on a field goal and another touchdown for a 24-6 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Ahmed finished with 193 yards on 17 carries, breaking 1,000 yards rushing and scoring his 12th touchdown in six games.
Quarterback JD Worcester completed 20 of 30 passing attempts for 204 yards, one touchdown pass to Dean Sise and a pair of interceptions.
The Rebels also fumbled several times, and had a fieldgoal blocked.
“It’s actually awesome that happened, because the adversity came at a good time,” Rebel coach Lele Teo said. “We can deal with it right now, and get after it in practice. If we blow Mercer Island out, we don’t know what we’re about. It’s great to get mistakes out of the way going into week 10.”
Next, the Rebels are scheduled to play the winner of the Bi-District playoff game between Shadle Park and Southridge on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Bergh Field in Kirkland. The No. 2 seeds from the Greater Spokane League and the Mid-Columbia Conference, respectively, are scheduled to play on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
Bellevue 42, Lake Washington 0.
Lake Washington needed a little magic on Friday to make the playoffs — either a huge upset over Bellevue, or losses by Interlake and Mercer Island.
The situation would have set up a three-way tie for the third seed and a chance at new life for the Kangs. Instead, Mercer Island, Interlake and Redmond finished in a three-way tie for the second seed, effectively eliminating Lake Washington (1-4, 3-6) from playoff contention.
The 42-0 loss at Bellevue High School really didn’t matter.
“It was fun to have the idea that we could have made it and get into a Tuesday playoff, but we didn’t control our own fate earlier in the year,” Lake Washington coach AJ Parnell said. “There were games we needed to play better in.”
Lake Washington is scheduled for a week 10 nonconference consolation game against Ballard High at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 at Mac Field.
