King’s Way Christian hits stride in win over Columbia-White Salmon

On the eve of the football season, the King’s Way Christian football team rolled out the welcome mat to players at Seton Catholic.

Together, those players are now on the doorstep of the postseason.

King’s Way beat visiting Columbia-White Salmon 31-7 on Friday.

With a win next week at Stevenson, the Knights (6-1, 2-1) would clinch their first postseason berth as an 11-man football team.

After two seasons of playing a hybrid schedule with no league games, King’s Way is in its first year as a full-fledged member of the 1A Trico League.

Jonathan Stell attends Seton Catholic, which suspended its football program late in the summer due to low turnout. Those players were allowed to join King’s Way.

Friday, Stell rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns as the Knights methodically ground out a win.

“This is probably the best team I’ve ever been on as far as being a family,” Stell said. “Coming from Seton, it’s one of the best feelings to be welcomed into this team and this school.”

Shoulder to shoulder, King’s Way dominated in the trenches on a wet evening. The Knights rushed for 364 yards while holding the Bruins to just 173 yards of total offense.

“Everyone got a hat on a hat the whole time,” junior lineman Jonathan Turcic said. “That allowed us to just pound the ball down the field. We knew we weren’t going to be passing the ball much with weather like this.”

Turcic grabbed one of three fumbles that King’s Way recovered in the first half.

The Knights also blocked a punt on the game’s first drive. That set up a short scoring drive capped by Liam Nabors’ 11-yard touchdown pass to Nic Pulicella.

“If we get those turnovers, it’s going to get us all pumped and keep us going for a few quarters,” Riley Danberg said. “So we got those stops and our offense just kept going, scoring touchdowns and running the ball hard.”

By halftime, the Knights were up 17-0. That was more than enough for the King’s Way defense.

Led by Danberg, the Knights shut down Zach Walker, who entered Friday with 744 yards and 12 touchdowns in five games.

Friday, Walker had just 55 yards on 18 carries.

Nabors, who completed six of 10 passes for 73 yards, added a 4-yard touchdown pass to Matt Garrison in the fourth quarter.

But there was no need to put the ball in the air. Along with Stell, Luke Hoffman rushed for 96 yards and Taj Muhammad added 77.

Stell was quick to praise the offensive line.

“They gave us the biggest holes we’ve probably had in a while,” he said. “Our running backs were identifying the holes before the play was even going, so it was just really fun to run the ball.”

With two games left in the regular season, King’s Way is hitting its stride together, even if a few of its players hit the books in a different school.

“We knew we were going to have to bond and come together for that common goal of making it to state,” Stell said.

KING’S WAY CHRISTIAN 31, COLUMBIA-WHITE SALMON 7

Columbia-WS 0 0 7 0 — 7

King’s Way 10 7 7 7 — 31

First quarter

KW — Nic Pulicella 11 pass from Liam Nabors (Austin Lauser kick)

KW — Lauser 26 FG

Second quarter

KW — Jonathan Stell 3 run (Lauser kick)

Third quarter

KW — Stell 4 run (Lauser kick)

CWS — William Gross 9 pass from Austin Bucklin (Eduardo Ortiz-Perez kick)

Fourth quarter

KW — Matt Garrison 5 pass from Nabors (Lauser kick)

 Individual statistics

RUSHING — Columbia-WS: Zachary Walker 17-70, Trenton Howard 9-41, Austin Bucklin 10-91. King’s Way: Jonathan Stell 20-168, Luke Hoffman 10-96 Taj Muhammad 9-77, Liam Nabors 4-10, Nic Pulicella 2-10, Chris Cotton 4-minus-4.

PASSING — Columbia-WS: Austin Bucklin 3-8-19. King’s Way: Liam Nabors 6-10-73.

RECEIVING — Columbia-WS: William Gross 1-8, Trenton Howard 1-10, Zachary Walker 1-1. King’s Way: Nic Pulicella 2-19, Luke Hoffman 2-43, Matt Garrison 1-5, Skylar Freeman 1-6.