Inglemoor defeats Redmond in football ‘dogfight’

Prior to the start of the Inglemoor-Redmond football matchup, one referee grinded his way through some pushups on the side of the field.

He apparently knew an epic battle was about to be unleashed on the crowd at Pop Keeney Stadium on Sept. 26.

After the two 4A KingCo Crown squads blasted into the end zones 11 times, Inglemoor emerged with a 42-34 victory behind a pair of scores by running back Trevor Thurman, including a thrilling 86-yard run to put the Vikings ahead 42-28 with 2:52 remaining in the game.

However, the game was not in the books yet as Redmond’s Colby Fazio snagged his third touchdown pass of the night on a 12-yard strike from quarterback Tyler Fortney with 1:56 left. After the blocked kick, the score stood at 42-34 in favor of Inglemoor. With Redmond’s defense holding tough, Inglemoor converted a third-and-6 pass for a first down and knelt out the rest of the way for the victory.

“It was a lot of fun, definitely everyone battled their hearts out. We started kind of slow, but we picked it right back up. It was a dogfight the whole game. We just came out on the wrong side of it,” Fazio said.

Added Thurman: “They did bring it. I thought (Carson) Bruener had a good game. Their defense was stopping our run the whole first half, and then we finally broke it open a little bit in the second.”

Fazio is pleased with the Mustangs’ performance this season, especially after notching a 37-35 victory over Lake Washington on Sept. 20.

“I would say it’s definitely the mentality. We’ve always kind of been underdogs, but I feel like this year we’ve tried to just stick it to teams. Instead of coming out and be like, ‘Oh, we’re the underdog,’ we just wanna come out and punch them in the mouth first,” he said.

Inglemoor led 21-7 at halftime and 35-14 after quarterback Kolby Solomon connected with Logan Russell for a 33-yard touchdown pass with 11:28 left in the game. Redmond stayed strong by cutting the Vikings’ lead to 35-28, first with a Fortney-to-Fazio 10-yard pass and then a Fortney-to-Carson Bruener 49-yard pass with 4:34 remaining.

On Redmond’s first touchdown, Carson Bruener received the snap and pitched the ball to Fortney, who passed to Fazio for a 7-yard score. Fortney also connected with Carson Bruener on a 15-yard touchdown pass. Maroun El Dik booted four PATs on the night.

Fazio praised teammate Zach Roper for his two mammoth kickoff returns for nearly 70 yards each to set up touchdowns.

“He’s just a shifty dude, I have not seen a lot of kids bring him down on the first try. He finds open spaces, cuts back across the whole team. I don’t know how he does it,” he said.

After Fortney strolled by with a smile beaming through his face mask, Fazio discussed their receiver-quarterback bond.

“It’s just awesome. He’s a great quarterback. Young kid, came in last year. I just can’t wait to see where he goes,” he said.