Warriors hoping to catch Zillah with upswing

MATTAWA — Hey Mattawa area football fans, your team is still battling to make it to the state playoffs. It won’t be easy, but the last three weeks have given the Warriors hope.

The latest motivator was the 60-13 flattening of Burbank last Friday.

Wahluke, which was not a part of the playoff conversation after six games (1-5), goes to Zillah Friday for a 7 p.m. game. If the Warriors win that SCAC playoff, they will be at home against the No. 2 team from District 7 the following week.

If they were to win again, they would likely face Connell in a quarterfinal game and, if were to win that, they’d likely face Royal in a semifinal.

The Warriors finally got their backs up and asserted themselves to end the season. It was what their coach, Mike Foristiere, was trying to convince them they could do.

Facing three teams that beat them regularly in the past, they pounded the opposition for a 3-game streak and some momentum. Meanwhile Zillah lost its regular season finale to Connell last Friday, and Wahluke now knows the Leopards can be had.

“We’re going to go in there with a chip on our shoulder, and we’re going there to win,” Foristiere said.

Two of the late-season wins were the first two SCAC road games the team has won in two seasons under Foristiere.

The two teams met at Zillah last year when Wahluke was still trying to learn what new coach Mike Foristiere was talking about. Wahluke was in that game through the half, but Zillah pulled away in the second half and Wahluke folded, as it had so many times before.

“When I came here two seasons ago I felt the program was looked upon by the outside as a joke,” Foristiere said. “But as season 2 is coming to a close, the comments I now hear are, ‘we need to be prepared for you because the players you have are competing.’”

“The next steps are to increase out team strength and speed,” Foristiere added. “We need to also educate our players on the game because a lot are still just learning the game. I feel now that a lot of younger players are seeing the growth and want to partake in the great adventure of being a football player.”

The Warriors may be the biggest team in the league, to a man, but they were getting pushed around and fumbled the ball at critical moments. Now they know how to impose their weight advantage.

They’ve had to punt only once in those last three games. And they have fumbled only once.

One thing Wahluke’s big boys can do is move the ball on the ground.

The offensive line averages more than 220 pounds, and all of the players in a stable of 5-7 ball carriers get a lot of rest..

The Warriors rushed for 470 yards in their sixth game, 393 in the seventh and 526 yards in their last game. They totaled 3,688 for the year.

They were led by Jason Cruz, who ran for 1,127 yards. Brandon Anaya totaled 611, David Pineda 546, Jose Alejo 450 and Daniel Corrales 388.

The Warriors did not pass the ball much, but quarterback Jose Madrigal completed 18 of his 34 throws for 456 yards and two touchdowns. He also connected on six 2-point conversions.

The defense was led by Cruz with 93 tackles, Corrales with 91 and Dan Miron with 87.