Bellevue, Mount Si makes national watch list for week’s prep football slate | Prep football news

The Wolverines and Wildcats meet for the third time in the past year, after two lopsided Bellevue wins in 2012.

By Josh Suman • October 18, 2013 12:21 pm
Budda Baker (32)
Budda Baker (32)

Bellevue (6-0, 4-0) VS. Mount Si (6-0, 4-0), 7 p.m. Friday

Bellevue faces the unbeaten Wildcats in what may be its biggest test since the opening week win over Skyline at Husky Stadium, and at least one national publication has taken notice.

MaxPreps.com, which has the Wolverines ranked 11th in the country, lists the game in its Top 10 High School Football Games of the Week, with all six of its analysts predicting a lopsided Bellevue win.

These same two teams met last year in a showdown between top-ranked Class 3A teams in Snoqualmie and it was the Wolverines in a route, the first of two wins on the year for Bellevue over Mount Si with the second coming in the 3A state semi-finals.

This year’s game also features a pair of unbeaten teams, with coach Butch Goncharoff’s Wolverines still firmly affixed atop the state polls and the Wildcats looking primed to make another deep postseason run. Both teams enter off blowout wins, as Bellevue blasted Interlake 52-13 and Mount Si took care of 2A Lake Washington 49-7.

Only Issaquah has put up more than 14 points on Mount Si this year while the Wildcats are averaging 45 points per game over the past three weeks.

Bellevue has been its dominant self all season and has allowed only two teams, Juanita and Interlake last week, to reach double-digit scoring.

Over the first four weeks of the year, Bellevue opponents managed only 20 points combined, including a 49-6 win over Bothell and heralded quarterback prospect Ross Bowers.

Newport (5-1, 2-1) @ Skyline (5-1, 3-0), 7 p.m. Friday

The Knights have rebounded nicely from the loss to Issaquah to open the division slate, beating Ballard and Roosevelt the past two weeks to keep their playoff hopes in tact.

Skyline has looked every bit the part of defending state champion after their season-opening loss to Bellevue at Husky Stadium.

The Spartans have ripped off five straight wins, including a 54-18 win over Ballard last week. In its four wins over 4A KingCo foes, Skyline has outscored its opponents 152-31.

Newport will look to senior running back Connor Baumann and his nearly 13 yards per carry average and a host of other backs including Paul Wells, Brian Setijono, Nkumbu Chisebuka and Emmanuel Davis.

Sammamish (0-6, 0-4) VS. Juanita (3-3, 1-3), 7 p.m. Friday

The Totems will be sporting customized uniforms from an alum for the Homecoming game against Juanita, channeling one of the state’s most memorable prep football games when Sammamish dropped nationally ranked Juanita in 1986.

This group of Totems is still winless on the year, despite putting together game efforts against Mercer Island and Liberty in recent weeks. The Rebels have lost their last two, to Bellevue and the Islanders, and lost by only nine points to unbeaten Mount Si earlier in the year.

Interlake (0-6, 0-4) @ Lake Washington (2-4, 1-3), 7 p.m. Friday

Both teams enter the game off a loss, with Lake Washington falling in a lopsided game to Mount Si last week and the Saints still searching for their first win of the year.

The 2A Kangs took down Liberty two weeks ago and currently own the inside track to earn the district’s 2A playoff berth. The Saints scored more than seven points for the first time in 2013 last week, in a 52-13 loss to Bellevue.