Football’s offense took flight despite poor record

Published 6:00 am Saturday, November 8, 2014

With a 2-7 record, the season was not kind to South Whidbey’s football team under first-year head coach Chris Tormey.

The Falcons struggled mightily on defense, allowing more than 30 points in five games, including a season-worst 53 points to Lakewood late last month.

South Whidbey’s offense, however, remained a point of pride. According to statistics submitted by coaches to the Daily Herald (a sister paper to The Record), the Falcons had plenty of firepower on their roster.

Ahead of a non-playoff away game against the potent offense of Lynden Christian (2-4 Northwest Conference, 5-4 overall), South Whidbey figured to focus on its strength.

Most plays started with the mix of power and speed of senior running back Deven Damerau. In his first year as the starting tailback, Damerau amassed 1,299 yards rushing — an average of 144.33 yards per game — to lead the league. In fact, his rushing yardage total is more than the next two top running backs, both from Archbishop Murphy, combined.

While the ground-and-pound formula likely made legendary South Whidbey football coach Jim Leierer proud, the Falcons also took flight this season.

Parker Collins, who saw some action as the starting quarterback last year before taking over the job this season as a senior, is second in the league in passing yards. Trailing King’s Koa Wilkins, Collins threw for 1,283 yards this season, which was more than 500 yards ahead of third-place Blake Watts of Lakewood.

All those throws went to someone — two someones, actually. Charlie Patterson, a junior, wracked up 505 receiving yards, including several spectacularly athletic catches. His yardage puts him in second place in the Cascade Conference behind King’s Karl Sather’s 540 yards.

Trailing both of them is first-year football player Mo Hamsa, who quickly learned the role of pass-catching tight end and became Collins’ go-to guy in the middle of the field. At 6-feet, 5-inches, Hamsa presented a big target who was hard to bring down. A baseball player, Hamsa’s sure hands were also a major benefit to Collins and the Falcons’ ability to move down field.

In their last league game of the season, the Falcons trounced the Sultan Turks 27-13.

South Whidbey would need all of their skill players at peak form to beat Lynden Christian, which was scheduled to take place Friday.

The Lyncs scored 40-plus points four times, and were held under 20 just twice, once to Meridian and once to Mount Baker. On defense, the Lyncs have been stifling. In four games, Lynden Christian held opponents under 10 points, the most points allowed all season was 31 to Mount Baker.