Red-hot Sports in Redmond

Hey there, Tim Watanabe here – the sports writer for the Redmond Reporter. We’re starting up a new blog initiative here at the paper and mine will be all about the high-school sports scene at the three schools I cover: Redmond High School (4A Kingco), The Overlake School (1A Emerald City) and The Bear Creek School (Sea-Tac 2B).

To get the ball rolling, how about those Mustangs last Friday night???

I’ve gotten to know head coach Mike Pluschke pretty well over the past year or so and I’m so happy for him and his team to get the win over the Mustangs’ bitter rivals Eastlake, who had a 5-year winning streak going against Redmond.

Anyone that saw the game knows that Michael Conforto is the real deal. This kid can flat-out run the football, and with a supporting cast of guys like Nico Shewey, Cole Hardwick and Clement Signoretty, the Mustangs’ running game looks to be one of the best in the league, more than enough to catch Eastlake off-guard. Everything clicked for the Mustangs last week, and yes they did get a few big breaks (in the form of badly-timed penalties by the Wolves) when they needed them, but the Mustangs really played a solid game.

Having such a great running game enables the Mustangs to chew time off the clock to protect a lead, which they executed to perfection, and have drives like they did when they methodically worked their way 82 yards from their own 18 on an 18-play drive (7 first downs!) which last year likely would have ended in a three-and-out.

Of course, the big test will be a little later in the season when Redmond plays at home against Issaquah, and (gasp) Skyline in the season finale.  In order to Redmond to vie for a coveted 4A Kingco playoff spot, they will have to win the games that they can/should win on paper (meaning this Friday against Newport… but I will be perfectly honest when I said that I had just about wrote the Mustangs off against 3-0 Eastlake coming into Friday’s game) and if they are successful, should be able to sneak in with a winning league record.

And not to overshadow the accomplishments of other teams – BOTH the boys (4-0-0, 5-0-0) and girls (4-0-0, 6-0-0) soccer teams at Overlake are undefeated so far!  The girls look especially good with a crop of experienced seniors and will look to better their state-quarterfinal appearance from last season.