Eatonville Rolls Cascade Christian 41-6

Senior quarterback Kevin Wulff shined again for the Cruisers this week as they easily took care of the Cascade Christian Cougars 41-6 on Saturday at Sunset Stadium in Sumner.

Game day captains Reilly McIlraith, Waylon Mettler, Blain Hanly, and Brandon Storm make their way to mid field for the coin toss before Eatonville's convincing 41-6 win over Cascade Christian. Photo: Julian Evans

The Cruisers would strike first and would strike often on the night.

After the mighty Cruiser defense forced the Cougars to go 3 and out on their opening possession, Eatonville would get their offense started in their first possession on their own 38 yard line.

The Cruisers would promptly march 62 yards down the field on four plays and would cap the series off when Wulff would float a nice 35 yard back shoulder fade to Jakob Lucht for the score. After Job Kralik’s PAT split the uprights, the Cruisers would take a 7-0 lead and never look back.

After the Cruisers forced another 3 and out, they would waste no time in getting on the board again.

This time, the Cruisers would start at mid-field and 3 plays later would find pay dirt when Wulff would find a streaking Reilly McIlraith for a 45 yard touchdown. After the extra point, Eatonville would extend their early lead 14-0.

On the next possession for Cascade Christian, senior Austin Wicker would rip a pass away from Cougar receiver Jackson Almond to set up the Cruisers next score.

Eight plays later, Wicker would be rewarded for that interception when Coach Kralik called his number for a short 7 yard carry for the score. Eatonville would expand on their lead at 21-0.

The Cruiser defense would then force another 3 and out and take over on their own 32 yard line.

Eatonville would then slowly and methodically march 68 yards on 13 plays before capping the drive with a 10 yard touchdown strike to Lucht to extend their lead to 28-0.

After a big sack by Chase Grant on 3rd and long for the Cougars, they would punt the ball again and set the Cruisers up at their own 43 yards line where the offense went to work.

Wulff wasted no time leading the Cruisers down the field and 2 plays later would again connect with McIlraith with a beautiful over the should catch for the score to extend the lead to 35-0 as the half came to a close.

The Cruisers would receive the kickoff to start the second half of play and would again strike quickly.

Starting from their own 20 yard line, the Cruisers would call upon Wicker once again. The senior would take the Wulff hand off around the outside and turn on the jets as he would outrun all Cougar defenders down the sideline for an 80 yard touchdown run. Kralik’s extra point attempt would be unsuccessful this time and the Cruisers would lead 41-0.

Cascade Christian would put together a nice drive and would be in the red zone knocking on the door at the Cruiser 10 yard line when Chase Grant would flush quarterback Cade Sando out of the pocket and force an errant through that sophomore Griffin Clevenger would pick off and scramble 33 yards downfield before being brought down to end the third quarter.

The Cruisers would then empty their bench and bring in the underclassmen to finish out the game.

After the Cruisers had their first punt of the night, Cascade Christian would put together a nice drive starting at midfield and capping it with a Byson Vasquez 11 yard carry for the score. Their extra point attempt would be blocked be Cruiser sophomore Memphis Barney.

With just under 5:00 left in the game, the Cruisers would start from their own 20 yard line and ground and pound the Cougars all the way down into the red zone after freshman Cole Bamford took the Hunter Klumpar handoff 45 yards down to the Cougar 5 yard line before time expired.

Head Coach Gavin Kralik was pleased with how his players performed.

“We are pleased with the number of kids that are playing at a high level for us. Through three games we continue to get great production from a variety of players and position groups. Our kids understand that we are going to have to play really well this next week as we travel down to La Center.”

The Cruiser schedule will get tougher as they will start facing tougher and tougher opponents.

“We begin a three game stretch against top ten teams in the 1A classification which will be a great test for our program. La Center is really well coached and has a ton of talent. We will need to play very disciplined to have a shot of coming out of there with a win” Kralik went on to say.

Quarterback Kevin Wulff would finish the night completing 11 of his 14 passes for 213 yards and four touchdowns. Wulff has now completed 72% of his passes this season for 730 yards and 9 touchdowns. He is currently on pace to throw for close to 2,200 yards in the regular season. The Cruisers haven’t had a quarterback eclipse the 2,000 yards passing mark in a season since Jacob McCormick threw for 2,183 yards back in 2015.

Game Stat Leaders

Passing: Kevin Wulff – 11 for 14 passing for 213 yards and 4 touchdowns

Rushing: Austin Wicker – 4 carries for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns

Receiving: Reilly McIlraith – 4 receptions for 86 yards and 2 touchdowns

Jakob Lucht – 4 receptions for 74 yards and 2 touchdowns

Interceptions: Austin Wicker (1) and Griffin Clevenger (1)

The #1 ranked Cruisers (3-0) will head to La Center, WA this Friday to take on the #8 ranked La Center Wildcats (3-0) in another non-league match up.

An important note for Cruiser fans for that game. La Center HS is capping the number of fans that can attend that game to 500 people in order to bypass the state mask mandate for outdoor events over 500 people.

Eatonville was given 150 tickets to disperse. The players were given 3 tickets each and any extras went to the senior players. So unless you have been told you have a ticket reserved for you, you will not be admitted into the game.

Eatonville will not be live streaming this game, however La Center will be. It will be broadcasted on the La Center Wildcat Football Facebook page located at www.facebook.com/LaCenterFootball