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The Crusaders' pass defense is up to the task against Wildcats sophomore quarterback JJ Woodin

September 14, 2018 by Norm Maves Jr., OSAAtoday
Jesuit's Kade Wisher ran for 181 yards and three touchdowns Friday. (Photo by Norm Maves Jr.)
Jesuit's Kade Wisher ran for 181 yards and three touchdowns Friday. (Photo by Norm Maves Jr.)

PORTLAND -- Jesuit repaired to its traditional offensive efficiency for two splendid quarters Friday and wiped out any doubts lingering from last week with a 46-13 home field victory over previously undefeated Westview.

It wasn’t perfect — there’s no such thing as perfect in Crusader coach Ken Potter’s vision of the high school football world — but Jesuit often did the things it likes to do with end-of-the-season perfection.

Like this:

The Crusaders (2-1) score the first five times they had the ball to establish a 33-6 halftime lead. The only negatives they had to show for the experience was one incomplete pass, one holding penalty, one clipping penalty and two missed extra points.

Jesuit ran the football well against the Wildcats. The Crusaders gave the ball to its Shetland pony tailback, 155-pound junior Kade Wisher, 29 times for 181 unofficial yards and three touchdowns.

Quarterback Will Spitznagel missed his first pass in the first quarter, then completed 10 straight, mostly on Westview’s vulnerable flanks. He finished with 14 of 17 for 164 yards.

And on defense, Jesuit’s tiny corner backs shut down the Wildcats’ big, athletic receivers and held the visitors 42 points under their two-game scoring average. Most of the credit went to 5-foot-8, 140-pound Gary Hollands and 5-10, 155-pound Seth Welsh.

Westview (2-1) came out slinging with sophomore quarterback JJ Woodin and tried to take advantage of a profound height advantage in the Crusader secondary, but the two little guys put the lid on the strategy with straight up single coverage.

Overall? Potter was satisfied. Sort of.

“We’re slowly getting better,” he said. “I liked the way our offensive line got off the ball tonight. But we still have a long way to go. I thought we gave up some offside penalties we shouldn’t have given up, and I can point out a few times when we didn’t get to the person we were supposed to block.

“So we’re not there yet, but we took a big jump tonight.”