Scoring touchdowns on four of their five second half possessions, Mountlake Terrace ran past Shorewood 49-21 Friday night at Edmonds Stadium.

Six Hawk ball carriers combined for 407 rushing yards in the game; running back Malcolm Johnson led the team with 20 carries for 214 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Senior Ryan Lacasse found the end zone twice, with Hawks Riley Morrin and Javon Ned also picking up rushing TDs in the contest.

“That’s how we hope to be winning games, by wearing teams down, by being physical and running the ball,” said a happy Terrace head coach Tony Umayam following the contest.

The victory lifted the Terrace record to 1-1 in league and 2-1 overall.

Johnson was quick to point out the effort of the Hawk offensive line and their work to open holes in the Thunderbirds defense. “I want to give a shout out to the front line,” the senior said. “With those guys, they really helped me get all these yards and this ‘W’.”

Terrace gained 532 total yards in the match-up as quarterback Justin Hopkins added 125 yards passing to the offensive total; the senior completed all five of his pass attempts, including a 23-yard touchdown effort to Austin Bates in the first quarter.

“The offense played exceptional,” Uyamam said. “We were able to establish the running game. What was good to see was Justin was able to get out there and sling it around to a few open wide receivers, and we were able to make plays in the passing game. When we have both of those things going then that just opens up more of our running game.”

“That was pretty exciting for them and gives us confidence knowing that we can move the ball both ways,” Uyamam added.

Following the Hopkins-to-Bates second quarter TD completion that gave Terrace a 14-6 lead, the T-Birds drove the length of the field to the Hawks’ 1-yard line. The series become a turning point of the game as Lacasse picked off an Aaron Okamura pass and Shorewood was prevented from scoring on the drive. Seven plays later the Hawks scored a touchdown of their own on a 7-yard Johnson run, stretching the lead to 21-6 going into halftime.

“Defense was kind of a bend-but-not-break tonight,” Umayam said. “We gave up a lot of yards, so we’ve got to get back to the drawing board on a few things there, but the guys really stepped up there near the goal line. We had a couple really nice goal line stands.”

The Thunderbirds did gain 363 yards of offense and compiled 17 first downs, but most of those totals were in the first half. After a failed Shorewood onside kick to open the second half, the Hawks took control of the contest with touchdown-scoring drives of 51 yards, 99 yards, 45 yards and 70 yards. Terrace held on to the ball for 10:36 of the 12-minute third quarter, never giving Shorewood any hope of climbing back into the game.

“The offensive line did a nice job,” Umayam said. “We asked them to take over the game in the second half and that’s exactly what they did.”

Terrace will face a much tougher opponent next when they take on Edmonds-Woodway on Sept. 26. The Wesco 3A rivals kickoff at 8 p.m at Edmonds Stadium.

– By Doug Petrowski

MTHS Football vs. Shorewood, Sept. 19

Shorewood                 6            0          0        15        —          21
Terrace                       7          14        14        14        —          49

MT – Ryan Lacasse 5-yard TD run — PAT kick good
S – Aaron Okamura 1-yard TD pass to Ronnie Gary — PAT kick no good
MT – Justin Hopkins 23-yard TD pass to Austin Bates — PAT kick good
MT – Malcolm Johnson 7-yard TD run — PAT kick good
MT – Ryan Lacasse 1-yard TD run — PAT kick good
MT – Riley Morrin 7-yard TD run — PAT kick good
S – Hassan Kone 5-yard TD run — Two-point conversion run good
MT – Malcolm Johnson 5-yard TD run — PAT kick good
S – Aaron Okamura 30-yard TD pass to Cameron Testerman — PAT kick good
MT – Javon Ned 62-yard TD run — PAT kick good

Records: Mountlake Terrace 1-1 in Wesco League play, 2-1 overall; Shorewood 0-2, 1-2

MTHS next game: vs. Edmonds-Woodway, Friday, Sept. 26, 8 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium