Falcons shutout Monroe, 21-0, in Woodinville's Homecoming Game

With hundreds of students and parents gathered at Pop Keeney to watch the Falcons beat Monroe 21-0 Friday night, homecoming weekend for the students at Woodinville High School couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.

“Monroe came in here thinking that they could beat us, but we put them in their place,” said Woodinville player Niko Liera.

The win brings the Woodinville's record to 4-1 and it was the Falcon's first successful shutout of the season.

Woodinville’s defense stepped up and showed their mental and physical toughness early on and left it all out on the field. 

Captain Parker Moore said: “We are always searching for that shutout. We had a lot last year so it feels good to have our first one this year.”

Woodinville's defense made several key interceptions throughout the game. The first was made by Ian Biddle with less than three minutes left to go in the second quarter.

Biddle's interception came after the two stellar touchdowns by Woodinville in the first quarter. The first was a run to the left by Niko Liera with 9:06 left in the quarter and the next was a 3-yard pass to the right from Caleb Hamilton to Trey Fornelius with 2:51 remaining.

With the Falcons up 14-0 starting the second, the interception made by Biddle made it appear that Woodinville had this one in the bag.

Monroe just couldn’t generate offense in the entire first half. Some of Monroe’s plays on offense were just pure bad luck, while others were completely broken up by the strong Woodinville defense.

In the second half, Monroe continued to self-destruct on offense. Numerous penalties were called against them and Monroe quarterback Mitchell Price threw two more interceptions. 

Parker Moore intercepted one throw just after Monroe ran a few plays to start the second half, and Will Jack intercepted another pass with 3:41 left in the third quarter.

Woodinville’s defense is beginning to look very resilient down the stretch and great offensive plays were also prevalent.

As wide receiver Brent Constantine said, “Offensively we wanted to move the ball and get it to different guys and we did.”

Quarterback Caleb Hamilton was 17 for 26 for 209 yards to go with his two passing touchdowns. The first, as said, was to Trey Fornelius in the first quarter and the second was a perfect 30-yard pass to Alek Kacmarcik with 3:50 left in the third quarter.

Both teams failed to score in the fourth quarter.

Final score Woodinville 21 Monroe 0.

While Woodinville got the win, there is something specific about the game that one cannot fail to overlook – the copious amount of penalties called on both teams.

Frustration was clearly evident from both players and coaches alike on both sides, but as Moore said, “We can only control us, so we do what we can do.”

Woodinville Head Coach Wayne Maxwell said after the game while they can’t control the referees and their calls, the players can learn from it and just focus on “cleaning up the silly penalties for next week’s game.”

“On offense, we put ourselves in way too many holes from penalties and that was the biggest thing of the night. We were stepping on our own feet. Kind of frustrating part on offense with all the dirty laundry on the field,” said Maxwell. 

According to Maxwell, the goals for last night’s game included focusing on each and every play.

The hope is that this focus will carry into Woodinville’s game against Eastlake next Friday at 7p.m. at Eastlake High School.

Be there. Should be a great game, as both teams will be coming off their separate, but equally crucial, wins from last night.