Huskies travel to the west side for quarterfinals matchup

OTHELLO – Coming off a 49-12 win over No. 12 seed Washington High School, the No. 5 Othello Huskies now prepare to travel to an undefeated No. 4 Enumclaw team, whose high-scoring offense has averaged 51.6 points per game this season.

“They’ve got multiple weapons. They’ve got a running back that’s really, really good,” Othello defensive coordinator Kevin Hale said. “Their quarterback is solid, they’ve got very athletic playmakers at wide receiver. Certainly, we’re going to have our hands full, but we feel like they haven’t faced a defense like ours that’s as athletic and physical and can match their physicality and athleticism.”

Riding high after a big win in the first round of the playoffs, the first for the Huskies in nine years, energy has been strong in practices this week.

“The energy’s been good,” Hale said. “Othello, we haven’t been here in a while, so it’s new to these kids to these kids to be practicing for the quarterfinals. Practice has been good, the energy’s been good. We’re focused and ready to go.”

The win over Washington, which finished second behind the Enumclaw Hornets in the South Puget Sound 2A League, also gave the Huskies a confidence boost.

“Getting that win in the state playoffs and the way we did it, it gives us a lot of confidence,” Hale said. “That team we beat on Saturday was the second-place team behind Enumclaw in their league. So, we feel like we match up pretty well with Enumclaw.”

Othello’s stout defense will be tested against the Hornets on Saturday, which is averaging just under 400 total yards per game, according to the team’s MaxPreps website.

“We do what we do, there’s no mystery to it. We just need to make sure we make them a one-dimensional offensive team,” Hale said. “Once we make sure we do that, we take away their run or their pass, and force them to just go to one of those, we feel pretty good about our chances.”

Enumclaw is close to 200 miles from Othello High School, though Hale and the Huskies aren’t concerned about making the trip. Plus, they’ve got the support of the Othello community behind them.

“It’s not going to be too bad. We’re going to have buses going over and we’re going to have a police escort out of town,” Hale said. “It’s a pretty big deal, the community is excited about it. The weather’s supposed to be great there on Saturday; the traveling’s not going to bother us one bit.”

Fans and students alike have been buzzing around the community about the success of the 2022 Huskies, who are 9-1 and haven’t lost since Week 2.

“We’ve had great community support all season, and it’s just increasing,” Hale said. “There’s a lot of excitement about this game, and there’s going to be a lot of people over to support the kids. You can see it on social media, you see it at the school – a lot of people are talking about it.”

Othello and Enumclaw kick off at 3 p.m. on Saturday with a trip to the semifinals on the line.

“We need to play solid defense like we have all season long,” Hale said. “Limit their big plays, they’ve scored I think over 500 points this season. So we just need to limit their big plays, take away what they like to do best. Offensively, we’ve got a lot of good athletes. We’ve got a lot of really, really good weapons. We just need to play clean football on that side.”

Ian Bivona can be reached via email at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.