Prep football: After E-W coach resigns, Gradwohl returns and leads Warriors to win over Shorecrest

After earning just one victory in their first five games this year, the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors were reeling, losing confidence and unsure of their prospects for the second half of the season.

Then their head coach quit.

Bill Marsh, in his first season at E-W, resigned on Friday, Oct. 4, one day after the team’s 49-6 home loss to Sedro Woolley. 

Three days later the team was back on the practice field to prepare for their next contest, a road game against the Shorecrest Scots. And a familiar face was there to greet them and take the reins of the program for the remainder of the year, longtime former coach John Gradwohl.

The change in coaches — and a renewed spirit among the players — propelled the Warriors to their strongest outing of the year and an emphatic 42-14 thumping of the Scots in a Wesco league clash played Friday at Shoreline Stadium.

Edmonds-Woodway used a strong first half showing by the offense — three touchdowns in their four possessions — and an opportune defensive effort in the second half to crush a Shorecrest squad that had previously won four of their first five games of the season.

Gradwohl, who last year retired from leading the E-W football program after 28 seasons, stressed that Friday’s big win is a reflection of the work put in over the past five days by his players and his assistant coaches.

“It’s not about me,” Gradwohl said after the victory. “This is a good football team; they just needed a little direction. And all those guys (the E-W assistant coaches) worked their tails off. So this is not about John Gradwohl, this is about the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors.”

Gradwohl was asked by E-W Athletic Director Tyler Geving to come back as head coach last weekend after Marsh and his assistant coaches turned in their resignations on Friday. Gradwohl quickly made some phone calls and rounded up a team of assistants in order to prepare for the Shorecrest game.

“I had a lot of volunteers come back, Gradwohl said. “Everybody felt bad for the kids and wanted to help.”

Though he had retired from coaching the football team last year, Gradwohl is still on staff at Edmonds-Woodway High School and knew of the general mood of the team after their 1-4 start this season.

“They were starving — they were in the playoffs last year — they were starving,” Gradwohl explained. “They knew they were better than what they were performing. They were just starving for some direction.”

The direction provided by Gradwohl and his assistants resulted in more than 200 yards of E-W offense in the first half on Friday, including a pair of long touchdown passes from junior quarterback Cruz Escandon to Lukas Wanke. The two TD tosses — 27 and 45 yards — were executed with the same play call.

“It was the exact same play,” Wanke noted, describing his two TD catches. “Coach saw it the first time and then he was like, all right, let’s just go back to it again. It worked.”

The touchdowns through the air built a 14-0 Edmonds-Woodway lead in the first quarter. The Warriors led 21-7 at halftime and held at least a two-touchdown lead over the bewildered Scots throughout the second half.

Wanke, who also plays linebacker on the E-W defense, wasn’t done finding the end zone after his two TD receptions on Friday. The junior scored twice in the second half on interception returns of 67 and 76 yards.

The two TD pass receptions and two interception returns for TD’s added up to Wanke’s biggest individual performance of his prep football career. “I’ve had a couple three-touchdown games but no, never four,” he said.

The E-W scoring on Friday was rounded out by a 1-yard touchdown run by Nathan Schlack in the second quarter and a 3-yard run by Adrew Bau with under a minute to go in the game.

The Scots (2-2 in 2A/3A Wesco League play, 4-2 overall) had entered the game averaging 28.2 points per game but were slowed on Friday by a determined Warrior defense that gave up only seven Shorecrest first downs and forced six Scots’ turnovers: four interceptions and two fumbles.

Following the victory, an enthusiastic E-W team (1-3 in 2A/3A Wesco League play, 2-4 overall) could be heard inside their locker room celebrating their win and undoubtedly relieved that a chaotic week was closed out successfully. 

Wanke acknowledged that neither he nor members of the team knew ahead of time of Marsh’s resignation last Friday. “We didn’t know until Sunday,” Wanke said. “We came back Monday, hopped on the field, Gradwohl gave us a pep talk and we got right to work. And we had to work hard, learning a whole new playbook (and) having some new coaches come in. But we all got it done.”

“No bad things about Coach Marsh,” Wanke continued. “He was a good guy. I’m not sure what happened, maybe some personal things. But nothing bad against him.”

Wanke, who played under Gradwohl last season, certainly spoke for many of his returning teammates after Friday’s win. “It was nice to have Gradwohl back; that helped a lot,” Wanke said.

Prep Football: Edmonds-Woodway at Shorecrest, Oct. 11

Edmonds-Woodway 14 7 14 7 – 42

Shorecrest   7 0   7 0 – 14

1st quarter scoring:

  7:04 – Cruz Escandon (Edmonds-Woodway)  27-yard TD pass to Lukas Wanke; PAT kick good

  3:18 – Cruz Escandon (Edmonds-Woodway) 45-yard TD pass to Lukas Wanke; PAT kick good

    :47 – Daniel Stephenson (Shorecrest) 10-yard TD run; PAT kick good

2nd quarter scoring:

  5:52 – Nathan Schlack (Edmonds-Woodway) 1-yard TD run; PAT kick good

3rd quarter scoring:

  6:29 – Lukas Wanke (Edmonds-Woodway) 67-yard interception return for TD; PAT kick good

  6:04 – Ben Chesnut (Shorecrest) 68-yard TD run; PAT kick good

  3:38 – Lukas Wanke (Edmonds-Woodway) 76-yard interception return for TD; PAT kick good

4th quarter scoring:

    :57 – Adrew Bau (Edmonds-Woodway) 3-yard TD run; PAT kick good

Records: Edmonds-Woodway 1-3 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 2-4 overall; Shorecrest 2-2 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 4-2 overall

Edmonds-Woodway next game: versus Shorewood; Friday, Oct. 18; 5 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium

Shorecrest next game: versus Monroe; Friday, Oct. 18; 7 p.m. at Shoreline Stadium

— Story and photos by Doug Petrowski