And another thing you often see is a team play very poorly in a Week 1, but come out much stronger in Week 2 — and it has little do with the opponent.
The biggest struggle prep football teams face in Week 1 is getting players eligible to play.
Football practices opened on Aug. 16, and players must have participated in 12 days of practice in order to be eligible to play in the opener.
If a team opened on Sept. 1, there were 16 possible days of practice before the opener. For King’s Way Christian and Fort Vancouver, which opened on Aug. 31, there were only 15 possible practice days.
If a player misses a few days because injury, illness or turning out late for practice, he might not become eligible in time for the opener.
So that means many teams have players available in Week 2 that they didn’t have available in Week 1.
Given all of that, we are going to take a look back at some of the most eye-opening openers among local teams in Week 1.
WASHOUGAL: Prep football schedules are generally made in two-year cycles.
This allows a team to schedule home-and-away series of non-league opponents (i.e., Team A will host Team B one year, then Team B will host Team A the next year).
So we can compare last year’s result to this year’s result.
Last year, West Seattle came to Washougal and beat the Panthers 28-21, and Washougal would open the season 0-3.
This year, Washougal went to West Seattle and won … 54-0. And that doesn’t even tell the whole story.
The Panthers scored 44 points in the first quarter. FORTY FOUR!
According to Scorebook Live, the Panthers held West Seattle to minus-18 yards of total offense … for the game. The two quarterbacks West Seattle rotated into the game had a combined 11 carries for minus-73 yards. That’s a lot of sacks.
So clearly, West Seattle has some issues. But scoring 44 points in a quarter is very impressive, and a great start for Washougal.
The Panthers hosts Castle Rock this Friday.
RIDGEFIELD: Of course, Castle Rock may have issues of its own.
Last season, Ridgefield hosted Castle Rock and won 7-2. This year, the Spudders went to Castle Rock and won 41-0.
The Spudders overmatched the Rockets in size and speed, and quarterback Dawson Lieurance threw four touchdown passes.
The Spudders look ahead of where they were at this point next season. The next test for Ridgefield comes at home Friday against W.F. West.
KING’S WAY CHRISTIAN: Fort Vancouver had some big-time Week 1 issues. The Trappers only suited up 19 players. That not only meant that depth was an issue but also many players were playing out of position, which exacerbated the Trappers’ problems.
But still, King’s Way Christian’s 56-0 win showed that the Knights might be more in a reloading mode than a rebuilding mode.
The Knights put the game into running-clock mode by halftime, and Michael Garrison is a player that teams will have to deal with this season.
Next, the Knights hosts Forks, which is coming off a 68-0 win over Vashon Island.
SETON CATHOLIC: It was hard to know what to expect from the Cougars.
They didn’t have enough players to form their own team last year, combining forces with King’s Way.
Back on their own this year, Cougars had their game with Friday Harbor canceled just days before the opener. But Seton quickly found a replacement opponent in Toledo, Ore., an Oregon playoff team a year ago.
All those factors working against the Cougars did not matter as they rolled past the Boomers, 49-18.
Seton Catholic christens its new home field on Saturday against Charles Wright of Tacoma. Ironically, Charles Wright is also coming off a win over Toledo — Toledo of Washington, 19-18.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/preps editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at (360) 735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
