The Redmond High football team pulled off an upset for the ages against rival Eastlake, 24-21, last Friday at Walter L. Seabloom stadium in Redmond, beating the Wolves for the first time in six seasons.

“(This win) was huge,” said junior quarterback Michael Conforto, who led the charge for the Mustangs in the 4A Kingco Crest Division opener. “They’ve beaten us for five years, and we just said, ‘enough is enough.’ We came out here and took it to ’em.”

Going into the matchup against the Wolves, it was clear that Mustangs had the odds stacked against them.

Behind quarterback Kelby McCorkle, the sixth-ranked Wolves had opened up the season with a 3-0 record, including a 53-0 shellacking of Lake Washington back on Sept. 11.

The Mustangs were coming off one of the most lopsided defeats in school history, a 54-0 rout at the hands of Bothell last week, while being outscored 120-19 during their first three games of the season.

But after three crushing defeats to start the season, the Mustangs were not going to be denied against the Wolves.

“We got these kids to believe in the common schemes of what we’re trying to do… if we run the things that we’re supposed to run, we can be successful and move the football,” said Redmond head coach Mike Pluschke. “That’s what happened tonight. It was fantastic, just a great thing.”

CONSISTENT CONFORTO

Led by junior quarterback Michael Conforto, who rushed 28 times for 119 yards, the Mustangs put their phenomenal running game on display. “He consistently amazes,” said Pluschke of his quarterback’s performance. “He’s the type of kid that you think will take it over, and then he does the right thing and pitches the football. He gets other guys involved in the game.”

Junior running back Nico Shewey racked up 93 yards on the ground and senior running back Clemente Signoretty had 46 yards rushing as the Mustangs outrushed the Wolves 307-184.

Conforto led off the scoring early in the second quarter, running in a five-yard touchdown to cap off a 15-play drive from the Mustangs’ own 14, aided by a couple of ill-timed Eastlake penalties.

“It was a very frustrating first half, with the amount of penalties that were called,” lamented Eastlake coach Gene Dales. “We might have set a national record for penalties in the first half. It broke up the flow of the game.”

After Eastlake scored to tie the game at 7 in the first quarter, it was senior running back Cole Hardwick who made a great move to avoid two Eastlake defenders and scamper into the end zone for a 10-yard score, putting the Mustangs up 14-7.

The key turning point in the game was in the third quarter, when the Wolves’ senior running back Cameron Hunt appeared to score from 12 yards out, but a holding call against Eastlake negated the touchdown.

On the very next play, the ball was fumbled and turned over to the Mustangs, who took full advantage and scored on a methodical 18-play drive from its own 18-yard line to put the home team ahead for good, 21-13.

“We told our our guys they needed to play a four-quarter game for the first time in their lives,” Pluschke said. “We needed to get turnovers, and we did when we swarmed the football. We wanted to play with a nasty attitude, and we did that.”

Sealing the deal was a clutch 25-yard field goal by Andrew Rohrbach with 5:22 left in the fourth quarter, extending the margin to 24-13.

Eastlake answered when Hunt scored on a 60-yard run seconds later. A successful two-point conversion made the score 24-21.

The Wolves got the ball back for one last possession, but the Mustang defense held strong.

The home team was able to prevent Eastlake quarterback Kelby McCorkle from getting a good look for a desperation pass as the clock wound down, and soon the entire Redmond student body swarmed the field, celebrating the end of a five-year drought against their rivals.

“The one thing that was consistent was that Conforto played extremely well, and we were unable to stop him,” Dales said. “Defensively we had our game plan and weren’t able to execute it.”

“It was tough … they were emotional, this makes their year right now, obviously a big win for them. They played well and deserved their celebration tonight.”

WHAT DOUBTS?

This game proved to the rest of the league that the Mustangs (1-0 in division play, 1-3 overall) are a legitimate force in the Crest Division, Pluschke said.

“We gotta take it game-by-game, but we talked about (Eastlake) being our first divisional opponent, and we wanted to get started in the right way,” he said. “What happened in the preseason doesn’t matter. From this step forward, we can put ourselves to become a playoff team.”

As for the players, they felt everything starting to click during the practices earlier in the week and brought that focus and energy into the Friday night lights.

“We came out after having our best week of practice of the year,” said Conforto. “We were energetic, we executed, and I can’t give enough credit to my line, they worked their butts off tonight. I’m just so proud of the team.”

The Mustangs enter Friday’s game against Newport (0-1, 2-2) riding a new wave of confidence. After a tough start to the season, Redmond is tied for first place in the division with Skyline and Issaquah. That’s not bad company.

“People that doubted us, that thought we weren’t a good football team… we’re sewing things up around here at Redmond,” Pluschke said. “Our community needed this win and we got it, it was beautiful.”