King’s delayed but not denied

Traffic accident holds up bus, but knights win big at LaConner

By Alex Bosworth
For the Enterprise

On the way up to La Conner, the King’s High School football team got stuck in a traffic accident and spent an unplanned 2.5 hours on the team bus.

That was just about the only thing that went wrong.

The King’s Knights made up for lost time and got their season off to an almost perfect start by blowing out La Conner High School 51-6 in a non-conference season-opener Sept. 4 at La Conner High School.

“Yes, it is (a nice feeling),” said King’s head coach Jim Shapiro, entering his 13th year as head coach with the Knights. “You always wonder what the season-opener (will be like).”

In a game where junior quarterback Thomas Vincent and the rest of the offense displayed a brutal efficiency for getting into the end zone, Shapiro reserved his greatest praise for his defense.

The Knights defense held La Conner to a single touchdown in the third quarter when the game was well out of reach, and – most importantly in the eyes of Shapiro – won the turnover battle a decisive 5-0.

“We had set some goals related to turnovers (and reached them),” Shapiro said. “… Our defense, I was happy to see their tenacity towards the ball, how many (helmets) were around the ball. (With regard to winning the turnover battle) to have some of that fruit bear itself was encouraging.”

With the defense performing at a high level, Vincent, who set a school record last year as a sophomore for total offensive yards with over 1,500 yards passing, and 728 yards rushing, was free to go to work with the rest of his squad in King’s shotgun spread offense.

King’s senior wide receiver Nick Swanson had six catches for 125 yards and three touchdowns, and also doubled as the field goal kicker, connecting on a 29-yard attempt.

Junior wide receiver Curtis Clauson added three catches for over 120 yards and two touchdowns.

Vincent himself was a machine-like 9-for-12 on pass attempts for 246 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, completing long touchdown passes of 42, 47 and 65 yards.

A pretty impressive performance to start a year.

“He’s making good choices,” Shapiro said of Vincent. “He was checking off choices, going to his first, second, third read.”

Vincent added 47 yards rushing, and Shapiro said he has the strength to be a great runner — lifting around 300 and pressing around 400.

“He’s actually one of the strongest kids on our team,” Shapiro said of his quarterback, “he out-lifts some of our linemen … He’s really more of a running back that can throw the ball.”

Shapiro was also quick to praise La Conner for playing hard and clean all the way through the game despite being on the receiving end of a blowout – “It was one of the highlights for me,” Shapiro said of the way both teams conducted themselves.

Next up for King’s is its home-opener against Charles Wright Academy this Friday. Shapiro said Charles Wright switched this year from running the run-focused Wing-T offense to the shotgun spread offense that King’s runs.

If last week is any indication – Charles Wright put up 43 points in a 50-43 loss to Tacoma Baptist – it could be an extremely high-scoring contest.

“It’s going to be an exciting, wide-open game,” Shapiro said.