By Justin Damasiewicz
For The Vidette
The prep football postseason has just begun, but, in a way, it feels like the season just started for the Montesano Bulldogs.
I could recap Montesano’s 63-12 trouncing of Stevenson last Friday, but there have been so many blowouts this season that I feel like I’m writing the same things over and over again, so I won’t.
The Class 1A field has been narrowed to its final 16 teams, and Montesano is among them.
The most likely scenario for Monte came to pass leading up to the state tournament.
Aided by several key returning starters and a down Evergreen 1A League, the Bulldogs have pretty much cruised into the state tourney. Undefeated through the regular season and the district crossover round, the fourth-ranked Bulldogs are set to take on the Charles Wright Tarriers in a state opener.
As Montesano learned last season, winning every game during the regular season doesn’t necessarily earn you a favorable state opening opponent. Sometimes you end up traveling for several hours to face a team that eventually will make it to the championship game.
Well, thanks to their persistent success, and some luck with the rotating system the WIAA uses for seeding, the Bulldogs have landed a more manageable foe and a home game to open state competition this season.
I’m not saying that Charles Wright is a pushover, but it’s a far cry from traveling to Connell like Monte had to do last season.
It often can be difficult to figure out exactly how tough a state opponent will be because of a lack of head-to-head matchups and common opponents.
Charles Wright and Montesano do have one common opponent this year. Both teams played against Rochester.
Montesano traveled to Rochester and defeated the Warriors 54-19 on Sep. 22.
Charles Wright hosted Rochester on Sep. 15. The Warriors topped the Tarriers 21-7.
If we were going strictly by results against common opponents, the data heavily favors Montesano.
There are so many teams in the state and they don’t all play each other, so state rankings and these types of comparisons are all we have.
Here’s what I was able to find out about Charles Wright.
The Tarriers run a pass-heavy offense led by sophomore quarterback Dane Jacobson. Jacobson typically completes a respectable percentage of his passes, but has a propensity to turn over the football.
Jacobson averages more than 27 pass attempts per game and has completed 59-percent of his passes this season. He threw 16 touchdowns through the Tarriers’ first 10 games, but also tossed 15 interceptions.
The Tarriers have done a pretty good job of spreading the ball around to different receivers. Five different Charles Wright players have logged at least 14 receptions this season and six different players have caught at least one touchdown pass.
The receiving corps is led by senior wideout Alex Meadowcroft, who wears number 18. Meadowcroft has caught 53 passes this season for 776 yards and four scores.
Meadowcroft also is a leader on defense for Charles Wright. He was a first-team Nisqually 1A all-league selection as a defensive back last year as a junior in addition to being a second-team selection as a wide receiver and kick returner.
I am anxious to see how much of a challenge the Tarriers will present for the Bulldogs. I feel like Montesano has the advantage, but hasn’t really been tested much this season.
