Second-ranked Eastside Catholic comes in tied, leaves alone atop Metro League with win over No. 8 Garfield

SEATTLE - Two unbeaten football teams arrived at Memorial Stadium in Seattle for a Metro League showdown on Friday night. Only Eastside Catholic left unblemished.

The second-ranked Crusaders dominated the second half, pulling away from a halftime tie with No. 8 Garfield to earn a 30-10 Metro League victory that leaves Eastside Catholic alone at the top of the standings.

"Tonight, we beat a really good team," Eastside Catholic coach Dominic Daste said. "I’m telling you, they are a physical bunch of guys. Obviously, we played a much better second half than the first."

During that dominating second half, the Crusaders (6-0 overall, 5-0 Metro) took advantage of Garfield mistakes that set short fields time after time to pull away.

Brady McKelheer threw two touchdown passes after the break, Adam Jacobs added two of his three total made field goals and the Crusaders defense clamped down on a Garfield offense that had scored 233 points in the first five weeks of the season, an average of 46 points a game.

"We had confidence in our game plan," McKelheer said. "It was crazy. They came out physical. But we were able to make some adjustments."

It was Garfield (5-1, 4-1) that dictated play over the first 24 minutes. Combining an active defensive effort with good ball-control, the Bulldogs kept the Eastside Catholic offense mostly off the field. The Crusaders ran just nine offensive plays.

Still, Garfield failed to make much headway despite the big effort. The Bulldogs put together a single, clock-eating drive that erased just over eight minutes of game time, finally taking a 7-0 lead on quarterback EJ Caminong’s 4-yard run on the first play of the second quarter.

"They took the fight to us a little bit in the first half," Daste said. "I was concerned about leaving our defense on the field. We are well-conditioned. We had to stay the course."

Special teams evened everything out during the half, however.

Eastside Catholic blocked two punts, hurried the Bulldogs into simply missing a third punt attempt that was recovered at the Garfield 20 and induced a Bulldog to touch a punt of Eastside’s that gave the Crusaders an opportunity to take the lead on the final play of the second quarter.

"We thought we could get after them," Daste said of the punt teams. "That was part of our plan. But you don’t expect to count on something like that."

Though Jacobs missed that attempt (he went three for four overall), Eastside Catholic took advantage of short fields to earn a 10-10 tie at the break. The second blocked punt was picked up by LJ Imo and returned to the Garfield 2-yard line.

Masen Uribe took it in for a tying touchdown on the next play. Then, after the missed punt was recovered, Jacobs paid that off with a 20-yard field goal that gave the Crusaders their first lead, 10-7, with 5:07 remaining in the first half.

Garfield responded with one final long drive that stalled at the Crusader 17. A 35-yard field goal tied it again at 10-10.

It all changed when the third quarter began, and Eastside Catholic asserted itself. Again taking advantage of short fields, Jayden Reyes caught the go-ahead, 37-yard score on the Crusaders second play of their second drive at the 9:20 mark of the third quarter.

After a 30-yard field goal from Jacobs, Branden Ganashamoorthy grabbed a 21-yard touchdown reception from McKelheer and Eastside Catholic took a 27-10 advantage into the fourth quarter.