Highclimber football wallops White River

Matt Baide | Sep 15, 20220

Shelton scored 27 points in the second quarter to cruise to a 34-7 win against White River on Sept. 8 in Buckley.

The Highclimbers started the scoring with eight seconds left in the first quarter, with Roy Perez catching a 7-yard touchdown pass from Mason Goos for a 7-0 lead.

Bishop Manning caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Goos to begin the second quarter scoring, followed by a 29-yard touchdown pass from Goos to Gabe Menefee for a 20-0 lead. Bradley Eleton returned an interception for a touchdown and then ran it in from 1-yard out for a 34-0 lead at halftime.

White River scored on an 11-yard pass in the fourth quarter to avoid a shutout.

“It’s one of those weird deals, right, you got 34 points scored in one quarter basically,” Shelton coach Mark Smith told the Journal. “We scored with 8 seconds left in the first quarter, the first touchdown, and scored the rest of our points in the second quarter. None in the second half, I think we had a very explosive second quarter, I don’t think we were very consistent in our execution. I thought that we took advantage, we made them make plays and they didn’t make them when they needed to.”

Goos ended the game 7 of 9 passing for 126 yards and three touchdowns. Jayden Fuller led the way rusing for the Highclimbers with 58 yards on 11 carries. Connor Gilman had nine carries for 37 yards and Eleton also had nine carries for 27 yards and a touchdown.

Menefee had two catches for 52 yards and a score and Manning added two catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.

Cameron Huisingh and Phenix Oleachea each led Shelton with four tackles.

Smith said they played well on special teams, recovering the opening kickoff fumble by White River and recovering an onside kick.

Smith commended the play of senior quarterback Goos and the play of the defensive line.

After a loss at home to White River last season, Smith was pleased with the win and his team’s offensive output the first two games of the season.

“I always say we talk about it’s about us. Last year, we didn’t make the plays we needed to make. That White River game, they blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown and faked a punt and scored a touchdown,” Smith said. “If that’s what you’re going to rely on to win games, you’re not going to win many games, but you’ve got to be able to line up and play offense, play defense, play special teams. We were focused on those things. We feel like special teams cost us the game last year and this year, we recovered the opening kickoff fumble, recovered an onside kick but didn’t score. I was happy that our special teams were an advantage for us instead of a disadvantage.”

Shelton (2-0) travels to Chehalis tomorrow to take on W.F. West in the Highclimbers’ opening Evergreen Conference game. Smith watched the film from the Bearcats 33-7 loss to Lynden last week.

“It’s fun to have the momentum going in. Last couple years have been a rough start,” Smith said. “Now, after two games of learning, the first half against North Mason, we couldn’t get out of our way and were down at halftime. We had to come back and play a great second half. Next week against White River, we’re up 34-0 at half, totally different. Take the two halves, first half of White River, second half of North Mason, we’re hoping to play a full game and we know we’re going to be in a dog fight for four quarters.”