West Seattle mauls Nathan Hale, 40-7

WEST SEATTLE — Nathan Hale's offensive woes against West Seattle were categorized perfectly by a halftime banner from the Wildcats cheerleaders.

"Hale ain't got 'Nathan' on West Seattle."

And the Raiders got nothin' against the Wildcats defense.

West Seattle held Hale to 96 yards of total offense and scored 28 unanswered points in the second quarter en route to a 40-7 win in a Metro Sound Division game Friday night at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

"They took away our bread and butter plays, and it was very difficult for us to respond," said Hale coach Hoover Hopkins. "They're a great team, and they are very well coached."

West Seattle coach Davis Lura said his team benefited from having some extra depth this week to keep guys fresh on defense.

"We just had aggressive kids that got back to playing aggressive football," said Lura, who is expected to get more starters back healthy next week.

After plodding through a scoreless first quarter, West Seattle (3-1, 2-0 Metro Sound) scored four straight touchdowns before halftime, capped by a 40-yard touchdown pass from Ellison Tran to Markeem Adams with 11.6 seconds remaining.

In the third quarter, the combo connected on another deep scoring pass, this time of 52 yards. Each of the long touchdown passes was an audible by Tran, who noticed single coverage on Adams, who can run 100 meters in under 11 seconds.

Tran credited Adams' sprinter speed for the scores.

"He just makes my job easier," said Tran, who finished 12-of-16 passing for 239 yards and three touchdowns. "A couple of times I thought I out-threw him, but he just turns on the afterburners. It's ridiculous."

Said Adams: "Me and my quarterback have been working together for three years, so we just have that connection."

Nikko Emm led the Wildcats on the ground with 96 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Teammate Danny Phan had two touchdown runs.

Hale (1-3, 1-1) committed three turnovers, but got on the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter on a 5-yard touchdown run by quarterback Carson Hoel.

Last season, the Wildcats beat Hale 32-15 behind four touchdowns by T.J. Lee en route to the division title. The Raiders had won the previous two games by a combined 31-0 score.