The Irish Do What They Do: Advance

The O’Dea Fighting Irish football team has advanced to the state semifinals where they will play the Eastside Catholic Crusaders this Saturday, November 26th, at 1 P.M. at Memorial Stadium. The Irish are fresh off a 3-0 streak into the postseason with a recent victory over the Stanwood Spartans. They dominated the Spartans with a final score of 42-21.

A notable player who has recently dominated throughout this postseason is junior running back Sir Keenan Hart. During the Peninsula game, which O’Dea won 42-28, Hart stepped up big time with 3 touchdowns. Junior running backs Jason Brown and Chrisitan Winn were injured in the game; Brown having a pulled hamstring and Winn landing hard on his knee. Luckily for the Irish, Hart was ready and able to take snaps which resulted in a dominant performance.

“He really stepped up when we were down people due to sickness and injury and got us that win,” junior safety Jack Donovan shared.

Hart continues to take control in the post season. He also had a touchdown in their recent win against Stanwood helping the Irish advance to the semifinals.

The Stanwood game did not go as planned in the first drive of the first quarter. The Irish had a miscommunication on defensive line, ultimately creating a gap in the middle of the field for Stanwood’s running back to take it to the endzone. This touchdown gave them an early lead of 7-0 to start the game

The Irish’s character did not deteriorate though, like we have seen throughout the postseason especially in the Peninsula game after an unfortunate fumble by the Irish that lead to a touchdown late in the game. This is a key trait for the Irish in the rest of the postseason as they will face many ups and downs in their chase for a state championship.

“We just have to continue to push each other and strive for greatness,” Donovan shared.

The road this postseason will only test the Irish more. The state semifinals are now set with the Irish and Crusaders on one side of the bracket, and the Yelm Tornados face the Bellevue Wolverines also November 26th at 1 P.M. at Art Crate Field.

The best case scenario for the Irish is they win against Eastside Catholic and proceed to the championship, but once they get there they will not have easy game. Yelm is currently ranked number one in the 3A playoffs and Bellevue is ranked number five.

Eastside Catholic handed O’Dea their only loss of the season earlier this year with a score of 24-17. It was a back and forth battle that could have went either way. O’Dea plans to come out with fire and intensity to revenge themselves and get their ticket punched to the state championship game.

It will be key to get starters back to 100% before they play the Crusaders though. Sophomore cornerback Sage Salopek and junior cornerback Kyan McDonald are already confirmed to be coming back this Saturday after missing the Stanwood game due to injury. Brown and Winn have returned in the back field as well.

With all that said, the Irish have a majorly healthy roster and it will be exciting to see what they can accomplish.