A wild rally by the Inglemoor High football team fell short on Friday evening at Everett Memorial Stadium, but only just.
The Vikings took a 21-14 lead in the third quarter in the season opener on Sept. 2, but surrendered a fourth-quarter touchdown and two-point conversion and dropped a 22-21 loss to Cascade.
Quarterback Brayden Mills led the attack for the Vikings (0-1), completing 16 of 22 passing attempts for 217 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Cascade (1-0) scored on the first play from scrimmage, a 65-yard run from Jacob Elenbaas to give Cascade an early 7-0 lead.
Inglemoor trailed 14-0 after a 22-yard touchdown run by Cascade’s Andrey Nefedov in the first quarter, but struck back two touchdown connections between Mills and Cole Kindschi.
“We got off to a slow start with that opening play, but once we got a little bit more settled, we played better,” said coach DJ Baddeley. “We just couldn’t make enough plays to win the game.”
Riley Mersberg scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter to give Inglemoor the lead. Mersberg and junior Kyle Loken combined for 51 yards on 17 carries, hardly making up for the loss of senior Jalen Woodley.
The 6-2, 200-pound running back had figured to be the starter for the Vikings this fall, but fractured his foot during fall camp and is out indefinitely.
Elenbaas scored on a one-yard run and quarterback Brett Gillis ran in a two-point conversion with only a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but Inglemoor was unable to score.
Alex Crotteau was the game’s leading receiver with five catches for 145 yards, including a 45 yard pickup. Kindschi caught six passes for 68 yards and Chinedu Ugowkoli caught two passes for 38 yards.
Elenbaas picked up 138 yards on 13 carries. Gillis completed four of 12 passes for 50 yards and one interception for Cascade.
Next, Inglemoor is scheduled for a nonconference match up with Lake Washington (0-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9 at Mac Field in Kirkland.
SUMMARY
Inglemoor — 0 14 7 0 — 21
Cascade— 14 0 0 8 — 22
Scoring
First quarter
C — Jacob Elenbaas 65 run (Ezekial Starr kick)
C — Andrey Nefedov 22 run (Starr kick)
Second quarter
I — Cole Kindschi 7 yard pass from Brayden Mills (Austin Brooks kick)
I — Kindschi 39 pass from Mills (Brooks kick)
Third quarter
I — Riley Mersberg 10 run (Brooks kick)
Fourth quarter
C — Elenbaas 1 run (Brett Gillis run)