3A Football | In battle of 1 vs. 2, Skyline prevails

SAMMAMISH — They watched film of Lakes' playmakers for weeks, saw all of the big plays and bigger players, but the Skyline players always believed they could win when the two teams met.

But as they looked at the final score behind them Saturday afternoon — Home 39, Guests 20 — not all the Spartans were quite sure they were capable of this.

"It hasn't quite set in yet," receiver Gino Simone said.

By the end of the third quarter, the game of the year turned into another rout for No. 2 Skyline. With a 39-20 victory against Lakes in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs, the Spartans also eliminated the Lancers, the consensus No. 1 3A team.

"That's about as solid an effort as we've had this year," Skyline coach Steve Gervais said.

The Skyline offensive line didn't let Lakes' Kavario Middleton, the state's top-ranked college recruit, sack quarterback Jake Heaps. Meanwhile, the Spartans defense sacked Lakes quarterback Calvin Schmidtke six times in the first half.

"I think it had an impact," Gervais said of the pass rush. "If you watch their tape, they haven't got to him all year."

Holding on to an 18-14 halftime lead, the Skyline defense shut down Lakes' two opportunities to take the lead early in the second half. That set the scene for the offense to put the Lancers away.

On the opening drive of the second half, Lakes forged inside the Skyline 20-yard line. But on fourth-and-two, the Spartans stopped Schmidtke's run a yard short. Then, on Lakes' next drive, the Spartans intercepted the Lancers' attempt at a double pass.

"They have some big-play guys," said Simone, a junior. "We knew if we could shut that down, some good things would happen."

With 4 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter, Skyline broke through, starting with Heaps' 28-yard touchdown pass to Phil Tushar near the sideline.

"Jake couldn't have put it in a better place," Tushar said.

After a Lakes punt, Skyline faced third-and-25 at its 14. Heaps threw deep to Cameron Lusuegro, who shook off tacklers as he ran down the sideline for an 86-yard TD to put Skyline up 32-14.

Heaps, a sophomore, finished with 322 passing yards, three passing TDs and a rushing TD.

"For a sophomore — are you kidding me?" Tushar said. "Unbelievable. He's ridiculous."

Yet Tushar made the throw on one of Skyline's pivotal plays. With the Spartans ahead 12-7 in the second quarter, Heaps threw a lateral pass to Tushar. When the Lancers secondary swarmed to Tushar, he threw to Simone.

"It felt like forever," said Simone, who laughed and added, "it was a terrible throw."

But it still counted for a 52-yard TD that put Skyline ahead 18-7 on a play named "30 paydirt," which Gervais put in the playbook this week.

Simone, the KingCo 3A offensive player of the year, had 178 yards receiving for the Spartans, who will host Kennewick next weekend in the quarterfinals.