Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

PREP FOOTBALL: Meridian falls to undefeated Montesano in first round of Class 1A state playoffs

TUMWATER - The Montesano football machine just kept rolling in the opening round of the Class 1A state playoffs, no matter what Meridian tried to do to stop it.

The undefeated and untested Bulldogs look every bit the top ranked team in the state in Class 1A on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Tumwater Stadium, cruising to a 40-0 lead in the first half and leaving the Trojans scattered in their wake during a 54-14 opening round win.

Montesano meets Cascade Christian in the state quarterfinals next week. Meridian finishes the season 8-4 overall.

"Offensively that's a real solid team," Meridian coach Bob Ames said. "Defensively they're alright. We just hoped we'd be able to stress them a little more. What I liked the most about them was they we they played together. We'd throw the ball down field and there would be seven guys there waiting for it. That's impressive."

Ames, of course, was joking when he said the Bulldogs defense was just alright. Coming into this game Montesano had allowed just one touchdown, and that came late in the second half of a blowout win against reserves. When Kody Carlson hauled in a 22-yard pass during the third quarter for Meridian's first touchdown of the game, it was the first time this season the Bulldogs starters have allowed a score.

While much has been made about Montesano's defense, its offense has been just as impressive. The Bulldogs came into the game averaging just over 48 points per game and nearly matched that total in the first half alone. And they did it with both the rush and the pass. Montesano racked up more than 450 yards of offense including 312 yards on the ground.

"They are just solid everywhere," Ames said. "That's a team that's going to go a long way in this thing."

Montesano's defense got things started by grabbing an intercepting on Meridian's third play of the game to set up the Bulldogs first score. Montesano's Gunner Godfrey rambled in from the 3-yard line to make it 7-0 with a little less than nine minutes to play in the first quarter. Montesano kept the pressure on from there, recovering an onside kick to set up its second score. Kale Trimble hauled in a 38-yard pass for a touchdown and it was 13-0.

Ryan Campbell added a 2-yard touchdown dive a few minutes later to make it 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and the rout was on. After taking a 40-0 lead into halftime, Campbell scored on a 29-yard run early in the third quarter to give Montesano a 47-0 lead and a continuous clock. Campbell finished with 170 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

Not only was Montesano's runaway train of an offense tough for Meridian to stop, the Bulldogs defense made things just plain painful. Quarterback Tait Slesk was hit hard throughout the first half and Zach Slesk left early in the second quarter with an injury and didn't return. Montesano, meanwhile, seemed to be able to do whatever it wanted to against a bruised and battered Trojan team.

"We've been mixing and matching so much the last couple weeks, but that's just one of those things," Ames said. "They haven't really had to deal with that kind of adversity. I'd rather be lucky than good and I say that in terms of not getting hurt and that kind of stuff."

Carlson scored Meridian's second touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter, this time on a 2-yard reception. His 49-yard reception three plays earlier helped set up the score. Carlson finished with four catches for 99 yards and Tait Slesk went 9 for 18 for 155 yards passing to lead the Trojans.

"That's a real good team," Ames said. "Now we'll see if they can break our record. In 1983 we gave up 28 points. So we'll see."

Meridian 0 0 7 7- 14

Montesano 21 19 7 7- 20

First Quarter

Mont - Gunner Godfrey 1 run (Sean McNealley kick)

Mont - Kale Trimble 38 pass from Joshua Tyler (Kick fail)

Mont - Ryan Campbell 2 run (Campbell run)

Second Quarter

Mont - Ryan Campbell 49 run (Kick fail)

Mont - Craig McAlpin 28 pass from Joshua Tyler (Kick blocked)

Mont - Gunner Godfrey 2 run (Sean McNealley kick)

Third Quarter

Mont - Ryan Campbell 29 run (Sean McNealley kick)

Mer - Kody Carlson 22 pass from Tait Slesk (Juan Alvarez kick)

Fourth Quarter

Mont - Stefan Green 1 run (Sean McNealley kick)

Mer - Kody Carlson 2 pass from Tait Slesk (Juan Alvarez kick)

Mer Mont

First downs 11 23

Rushing Att-Yards 27-75 44-312

Comp-Att-Int 9-18-2 9-13-1

Passing yards 155 156

Penalties-yards 3-35 2-10

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Individual leaders

RUSHING - Meridian: John Murphy 16-39, Bodean Norris 6-33, Zach Slesk 4-10, Tait Slesk 1-(-7); Montesano: Gunner Godfrey 11-78, Joshua Tyler 3-10, Doug Bennedict 4-27, Ryan Campbell 18-170, Evan Truax 1-2, Stefan Green 5-12, Austin Baker 1-1, Elliott Mendenhall 1-12.

PASSING - Meridian: Tait Slesk 9-18-2-155. Montesano: Joshua Tyler 9-13-1-156

RECEIVING - Meridian: Zach Slesk 2-17, Travis Ableman 3-39, Kody Carlson 4-99. Montesano: Craig McAlpin 6-70, Kale Trimble 2-58, Gunner Godfrey 1-28.