Friday’s featured game in Snohomish County will go a long way to decide the winner of the Wesco 3A North Division; this game will also go a long way to determine who will be going deep into the post-season.  There are only two games in the top three classifications between ranked teams in the state this week. Down south, in the Kingco League, #3 Bothell is taking on #10 Mount Si; and in the Western Conference, it’s #6 Ferndale facing down with #5 Marysville Pilchuck.

Both teams come into the game undefeated in league play at 2-0, both teams are 4-0 overall. A reminder that Ferndale, Oak Harbor and Mount Vernon are members of the Western Conference 3A only in football; in every other sport they are members of the Northwest Conference.

The Ferndale Golden Eagles have swept their way into this game with four straight wins over Monroe, Lynden, Mount Vernon and Arlington.  Coach Jamie Plenkovich has been at the helm of the Golden Eagles program for 17 years; and it’s been a pretty good run, including state playoff appearances in 11 of those 17 years; a second place finish in 2004 and a state 3A championship in 2005 led by future Washington and Tennessee quarterback Jake Locker. The Golden Eagles haven’t made it out of the Quad-Districts since 2018. But it looks like this group just might be up for a deep run into the post-season. Landon Hatchett is a 6-3 285 lb lineman that has multiple offers from big-name D-1 colleges. The other players on the radar are running back Isaiah Carlson who has 455 yards and 6 touchdowns in the first four games of the campaign. Quarterback senior Mark Schlichting is mainly charged with handing the ball to a multitude of running backs, but he can sling it if he needs to; they just haven’t needed to in the early part of the season.

The Marysville Pilchuck Tomahawks are good. Despite their number five ranking in the state Class 3A; nobody was prepared for what happened at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Snohomish last Friday night. The scores kept coming in, and Marysville Pilchuck got further and further ahead of the previously state-ranked Glacier Peak. In fact, they boat-raced the Grizzlies and went running clock the entire second half. MP keeps adding to the cast of characters that we need to watch each night. We knew about Dylan Carson, he’s got 839 yards and 14 touchdowns; we knew about Jordan Velasquez with his 351 yards and 7 scores. But here comes Gaylen Gray, he had 4 carries for 104 yards last week and scored two touchdowns. The final last week was MP 49 GP 14. As good as the Tomahawks’ offense has played, their defense may be even more impressive; they came just a play or two away from holding Glacier Peak to minus yardage in the first half last week.

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 Quil Ceda Stadium in Marysville.