by Paul Moseley

The West Seattle Wildcats travelled to Ingraham high school to take on the winless Rams for their homecoming game in a Metro-Sound matchup. The Wildcats, 3-2 overall and 2-1 in conference, had some important bragging rights riding on the game. A win would keep them above .500, keep them within reach of Ranier Beach who clubbed them last week 47-7, and most importantly...keep them tied or ahead of village rival Chief Sealth who they will face next week.

After four quarters of spirited and sometimes messy football, West Seattle won the bragging rights, and Ingraham is still looking for its first victory.

West Seattle got the ball first. Their starting QB sidelined with a concussion, the Wildcats came out with a three quarterback offense. They rotated backup QB Joey Kane, WR Joe Ylagan and speedster Diandre Jackson behind the center, throwing off the Ingraham defense. On the Wildcat's first drive, Kane connected with Ylagan for a pass and the first score. A failed misdirection play for a two point conversion put West Seattle up 6-0 in the first quarter.

Ingraham went 4 and out on their next possession, and West Seattle got the ball in good position at mid-field. With a great opportunity to go up by 2 TD's, West Seattle committed their first of many fumbles and Ingraham had the ball on their own 45. On a nice run from scrimmage, Ingraham's Ryan Kyle ran it to the 15 yard line, then caught a pass on the 2. A run by Darby Blake and a PAT made it Ingraham 7, West Seattle 6 and the homecoming crowd went crazy.

West Seattle came right back. A long kickoff return and a beautiful run from scrimmage by Jackson got West Seattle right back inside the 10. A running TD by Wildcat running back Siddique Newkirk and another quirky (but successful) 2 point conversion put WS up 14-7.

Ingraham returned the favor on their next drive. They marched to the 31, and Ram QB Trevor Fay sprinted through the West Seattle defense for a score from the ground. They missed the PAT and it was WS 14, IN 13.

That was at 8:31 in the 2nd Quarter. For the rest of the half, the Ref's exercised their flag-throwing arms and the Wildcats and Rams pretended the ball was hot lava, with West Seattle fumbling twice inside their own 20.

The third quarter was much of the same back and forth until the 2:42 mark, when Jackson was back at it and made the prettiest run of the night - a 52 yarder into the end zone, and West Seattle had a little cushion at 21-13 over Ingraham.

In the next series, Ingraham fumbled on their own 15 yard line and Wildcat Thomas Tuong recovered. Zip Zap and West Seattle was up 29-13 on an off tackle run by Ylagan.

Ingraham kept charging and made it back to the red zone at 10:39 in the 4th quarter with a reception by Stewart Lange to the 3 yard line. 4 Plays later, Ingraham had no score and West Seattle had the ball. This time it was Ylagan's turn again to showcase. Capping off the WS drive with runs of 30 and 12 yards, West Seattle was all the way down to the Ingraham 4 yard line. West Seattle's Ayden Mikami got the nod and pushed it into the end zone and, after another Harlem Globetrotter two pointer, West Seattle was up 37-13.

One final drive by West Seattle put Mikami in the end zone again and the final score was West Seattle 44, Ingraham 13.

West Seattle Coach Dominic Yarrington was glad for the win but critical of the team's execution tonight. Asked what will be his focus as the Wildcats prepare for the Seahawks next week, "We gotta play team, fundamental football. We're playing pretty selfish right now. Once we get that figured out, we should be pretty good. Stop the penalties and stop the turnovers."

Going into tonight's games, Chief Sealth and West Seattle had identical records. With the Seahawks loss to Nathan Hale, West Seattle has the superior record going into next week's game between the two west side teams. West Seattle will have their first string QB back and Sealth will be aiming to even up their records once again. That game is scheduled for Friday at 7:00PM at the Southwest Athletic