Spartans look to rebound after loss to Vashon

Published 9:40 am Friday, September 18, 2009

One could assume Bainbridge High School’s football team won’t be unprepared tonight against Kingston after suffering a 28-7 loss to Class 1A Vashon Island a week ago.

But then again, Kingston invades BHS Stadium tonight with an 0-2 record, including a 28-20 loss last week to North Kitsap, which the Spartans defeated 35-19 in their season opener. Plus, Bainbridge spanked Kingston 42-17 a year ago.

Coach Andy Grimm said it’s always hard to tell how a young team like his will respond. Minutes after the loss, Grimm told his dejected players that the mettle of a team is revealed by how it “bounces back” from a humiliating loss such as the one it had just suffered on its home field.

“They’re young and don’t have the experience to draw from,” Grimm said this week. “But you kind of find out what you’re all about after a performance like that. We’ve challenged them to get it back this week. We’ll see if they’re up to the challenge. They’ve practiced well, but you don’t know how a practice during the week correlates to Friday night.”

Grimm said coaches had talked to the team about Vashon, telling them they were a hungry team and had a lot of talented players returning.

“Then we went out and just got outplayed,” Grimm said. “They came after us and we just didn’t respond well. They put some pressure on us, we missed assignments, got beat, and they ended up chasing our quarterback (Jordan Wagner) around.”

When the Spartans were unable to run the ball effectively and then got behind, Wagner threw the ball an uncharacteristic 28 times – compared to only seven passes against North Kitsap.

“Scheme-wise, not being able to run hurts us and makes us throw too much,” Grimm said. “That’s not our game. They did a good job forcing us to pass and then we weren’t picking up their blitzes.”

And defensively, the Spartans had trouble with Vashon’s spread offense.

“They got out on our linebackers and we didn’t pressure their quarterback, so he had time to find people in our zone,” Grimm said. “We just had it taken to us on both sides of the line.”

Grimm said his team better be ready for Kingston, a Class 2A team that gave North Kitsap all it could handle last Friday in Poulsbo.

“They play hard and they like to run the ball like we do,” he said. “And they have nothing to lose. Hungry teams like them are dangerous. This is just their third season and they’re still looking for that signature win that gets their program going.”

The Buccaneers opened with a close loss to Chimacum then matched North Kitsap touchdown for touchdown until the Vikings’ Alex Flores scored on a 42-yard run late in the fourth quarter. The Buccaneers still had a chance for a tie until North Kitsap intercepted a pass with 11 seconds remaining in the game.

Grimm, who said last year’s score against Kingston was a little deceiving, believes this year’s team is less balanced offensively and will have to run on the Spartans to win. Travis Schriner is Kingston’s most effective runner, Grimm said, but they have at least two other backs who are difficult to stop.

“We’ll need to force them to pass,” Grimm said. “It will be to our benefit if we can shut down their running game. It will be to their benefit to keep close to us and run the ball like they did against North.”

Conversely, he’d like to see his team run about 40 times and throw between 10 and 15 passes.

And play with some emotion.

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Highlights

Rushing – Alex Johnson 13-40

Passing – Jordan Wagner 13-28-201

Receiving – Jason Haley 6-103