Interlake coach Sheldon Cross wanted to be brief with his team once Thursday night’s game was over.

So he gathered them quickly, sat them down on their knees and said three words.

“Welcome,” he said to the squad, “We’ve arrived.”

So they have. Interlake, a Class 2A team, laid a pounding on Mount Si, lighting up the scoreboard for a 50-28 conference victory over the Wildcats from Snoqualmie.

“That’s the kind of win that say’s we’re here,” Cross said after the game. “There’s no words to describe how big that win was for our program.”

For an offense that has averaged over 50 points in its first three games, it was the Saints defense that set the stage for the victory. Interlake (3-0) stopped Mount Si twice on fourth-and-one situations on the first two Wildcat possessions. After each turnover, Interlake’s high-octane offense, led by quarterback Matt Malos and running back Brett Kirschner, found the end zone, giving the Saints a 12-0 lead before eight minutes had run off the game clock.

“From that point on,” Kirschner said, “we knew we were going to win.”

Interlake scored on all six of its first-half possessions, fueled by a big push up front from the offensive line that allowed the Saints to rush for 258 yards in the first two quarters, and highlighted by a 92-yard touchdown run from Kirschner made possible by a big block from right tackle Colton Faber that took out two Mount Si defenders.

“They came in here thinking they were going to take our bone,” said Faber, a senior who missed all but five games last year with an ankle injury. “But we were more physical.”

The second quarter also featured a highlight reel play by Malos, who rolled out to his right to a swarm of defenders, and turned back into an official, but stayed on his feet and ran back to his left for a 26-yard score to give Interlake a 38-7 lead.

“That’s just Matt being Matt,” Cross said. “He’s a special quarterback.”

After rushing for only 16 yards in the first half, Mount Si (1-2) was all but forced to go to the air. Quarterback Chris Clark completed 20 of 34 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns, but the closest the Wildcats would come was the early 18-7 deficit.

Meanwhile, the Saints wouldn’t let off the gas, as Malos threw another touchdown pass to Kirschner on a screen, and ran another one in himself.

“I can tell you how much they wanted this,” Cross said. “They want to make a serious run. They want to be a team that can go all the way.”

It was the first win over the Wildcats for Interlake since a 31-28 victory in 2004.

“We’re enjoying every second of this moment,” Kirschner said. “Beating Mount Si, who would have thought? To everyone else, it’s unbelievable. But we believed it from the beginning.”