With a team short on experience, the Lynnwood Royals have struggled getting up to speed this season. The team was 0-5 going into their match-up with the Mountlake Terrace Hawks on Friday and had been outscored 222-36 in those opening five games.

Lynnwood’s inexperience showed once again on Friday as the team lost three fumbles, committed key penalties at inopportune times, and in the end fell to the Hawks 27-9 at Edmonds Stadium.

Terrace took advantage of the Royals’ miscues to grab their first Wesco League victory of the season and raise their overall record to 4-2; Lynnwood dropped to 0-6 overall, 0-4 in league play.

Hawks’ quarterback Jesse Martineau completed 10 of 21 pass attempts in Friday’s win for 129 yards and a touchdown; the junior also ran for a score – a 13-yard scamper to give Terrace an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Martineau’s rushing touchdown capped off a six-play 50-yard drive set up when Lynnwood turned over their first offensive possession on downs at midfield. It was the first of a number of missteps by the Royals that led to their defeat.

Lynnwood’s second possession ended at their 35-yard line on a fumble recovered by Terrace’s Thaddeus Merten; five plays later the Hawks’ Moussa Traore scored on a 3-yard run, giving Terrace a 13-0 first quarter lead.

Lynnwood’s woes continued in the second half as the Royals coughed up the ball twice in Terrace territory on potential scoring drives.

“Two fumbles in the red zone, that hurt us,” conceded Lynnwood Coach Keauntea Bankhead.

The Royals’ got as far as the Terrace 32-yard line early in the fourth quarter, but lost a fumble by Delaun Smiley-Tatum. The Hawks ensuing drive ended with a 60-yard touchdown run by Keegan Grayson, giving Terrace the 27-9 triumph.

Grayson ran for 80 yards total to lead the Hawks’ ground attack; eight different Terrace players contributed to the 183 yards gained by the team in rushing.

Lynnwood had hoped to stay in the game with the run on Friday as Smiley-Tatum ran for 85 yards on 18 carries, most of the yardage gained in the first half. “He’s someone who’s explosive,” Bankhead said of Smiley-Tatum. “When he gets the ball he can do great things with it.” But changes made by the Terrace coaching staff at halftime slowed down the Royals’ best running back.

“Delaun (is) really fast and that fly sweep action was tough for us, so we made a halftime adjustment,” said Terrace Coach Kelly Dougan. “We knew what we needed to do, so once we were able to communicate it to our defense – our linebackers, our d-ends (defensive ends) – then we had a little better handle on it. Shutting that down was going to shut Lynnwood down.”

Terrace’s defense held the Royals to 180 total yards in the contest. The Hawk defensive unit was especially tough on third and fourth downs; Lynnwood went 0-6 on third down, 0-3 on fourth down.

While fumbles and the inability to convert third and fourth down attempts hurt the Lynnwood offense, it was key penalties that crippled the Royals’ defense.

After cutting the score to 13-9 midway through the third quarter, Lynnwood had seemed to grab game momentum. The Royals’ defensive unit then forced the Hawks into a third-and-nine situation at midfield; Terrace failed to connect on a pass attempt and faced a potential punting situation, but Lynnwood’s Jayden Acosta-Newsome was called for a personal foul – targeting a defenseless player – by drilling Terrace receiver Jeswin John. Three plays later Martineau connected with Brandon Bach for a 33-yard touchdown pass.

Bankhead confessed that the Acosta-Newsome penalty was a turning point in the contest. “That changes the whole momentum of the game; that hurt us on that drive,” he said. “And then they just kind of pulled away from that point.”

Terrace will try to ride the momentum of a Homecoming Game victory into the next two weeks when they face two of the top teams in the Wesco League South Conference (Edmonds-Woodway and Snohomish) beginning with the Warriors (3-0 in league play, 5-1 overall) on Thursday, Oct. 12.

Lynnwood will next take on the Meadowdale Mavericks (2-2 in league play, 3-3 overall) on Friday, Oct. 13.

Prep Football: Lynnwood at Mountlake Terrace, Oct. 6

Lynnwood  0 0 9 0 —  9

Terrace 13 0 7 7 — 27

First Quarter scoring:
5:08 — Jesse Martineau (Mountlake Terrace) 13-yard TD run; Brandon Bach PAT kick good
1:14 — Moussa Traore (Mountlake Terrace) 3-yard TD run; Brandon Bach PAT kick no good

Third Quarter scoring:

9:54 — Jayden Acosta-Newcome (Lynnwood) tackles Moussa Traore in the end zone for a safety
8:03 — Delaun Smiley-Tatum (Lynnwood) 15-yard TD run; Oscar Nunez PAT kick good
5:16 — Jesse Martineau (Mountlake Terrace) 33-yard TD pass to Brandon Bach; Brandon Bach PAT kick good

Fourth Quarter scoring:

7:10 — Keegan Grayson (Mountlake Terrace) 60-yard TD run; Brandon Bach PAT kick good

Records: Mountlake Terrace 1-2 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 4-2 overall; Lynnwood 0-4 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 0-6 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: versus Edmonds-Woodway, Thursday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium

Lynnwood next game: versus Meadowdale, Friday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium

–By Doug Petrowski