Week number 10 of the high school football season, and that means it’s time for the Class 4A Quad-Distrct Cross-Over games. It’s the 10th week of the regular season; but this is the round of 32, lose tonight and you’re done for the year; win tonight and the WIAA will seed you into the round of 16 into the state playoffs which start next week. It’s Glacier Peak hosting Skyline.
Up until 3 years ago, we used to call this portion of the season the start of the road to the Tacoma Dome; well the Tacoma Dome doesn’t factor into the equation anymore (and that’s a good thing); the state championships are now contested in high school stadiums in the south end. We’ll call it the road to Pierce County.
The Skyline Spartans compete in the very tough Kingco League, so coming into the Round of 32 with a .500 record is not necessarily bad. Their four losses are to teams that are also into post season play. The name you’re going to hear a lot is TJ Crandall, without question the best athlete on the Skyline team, and the tall junior is amongst the best recruits in the state. Cam Elisara is the third year head coach of the Spartans; he took over from Mat Taylor, who took over from Steve Gervais. Skyline has an unbelievable history in the state playoffs with seven state titles between 2000 and 2012; plus three more times where they finished second. Skyline comes into this game with a 4-4 record; fresh off a 42-0 non-league win last week over Kentlake. In the state 4A football RPI, Skyline is ranked #30.
Glacier Peak enters the post-season with two losses during the regular season; but their RPI never really suffered because they lost to conceivably the best 3A team in Marysville Pilchuck; and last week, although they made it close, losing to #1 Lake Stevens 34-28. There were 4 lead changes in the third quarter alone last week in a game played at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Only three league games for the Grizzlies, because their Wesco 4A game with Kamiak was scrubbed by Covid Concerns at Kamiak. We’ll keep an eye on running back Trey Leckner and tight end Cooper Jensen, who really wasn’t targeted much in last week’s game. Jensen has already committed to play for Oregon State. Speaking of OSU, the aforementioned TJ Crandall and Trey Leckner both took recruiting trips to Corvallis back in mid-October. Glacier Peak has a #7 ranking in the state football RPI.
FRIDAY NIGHT 4A QUAD-DISTRICT GAME: Skyline at Glacier Peak, 7 pm
FRIDAY NIGHT 3A QUAD-DISTRICT GAMES: Bishop Blanchet at Marysville Pilchuck, 7 pm; Stanwood at Lincoln (Lincoln Bowl), 7 pm; Auburn-Mountainview at Arlington, 7 pm
SATURDAY 4A QUAD-DISTRICT GAMES: Kamiak at Skyview (Kiggins Bowl), 1 pm; Emerald Ridge at Lake Stevens, 2 pm
SATURDAY 3A QUAD-DISTRICT GAMES: Ferndale at Garfield (Seattle Memorial), 2 pm; Monroe at Lakes (Harry Lang Stadium-Lakewood), 2 pm; Snohomish at Rainier Beach (Seattle Memorial), 5 pm; Edmonds-Woodway at Peninsula (Roy Anderson Field-Gig Harbor), 7 pm.
High School Football on KRKO AM 1380 & FM 95.3; streaming live at www.krko.com and on the KRKO Phone App. Tom Lafferty, coach Joel Vincent and Steve Willits will have the call on Friday night, 6:30 pm Pregame Show; 7:00 pm Kick-Off, live from Veterans Memorial Stadium in Snohomish.
