Despite scoring early in the first quarter, the Mount Si Wildcats football team took their second loss of the season Sept. 22 when they played Woodinville at home. Woodinville, the current leader of the KingCo 4A league and the former league champions, defeated Mount Si 38-7.

Mount Si head coach Charlie Kinnune said the match was their toughest yet, but the team has shown that they can bounce back from this type of loss.

“We played a better team. Woodinville’s team is ranked fifth in the state, returning KingCo champs. They won last year with basically the same team and teams like that tend to make you play bad, so we certainly contributed by not executing, but those were all symptoms of playing a team better than you are,” he said. “Our team has shown a lot of grit, it’s come back from being down. We just haven’t shown that at home.”

Mount Si now has two wins and two losses in the season, both losses occurring at home games. Kinnune said that the team feels bad they have not been able to perform well at home, but their game against Woodinville will motivate the team to play at a higher level than before.

“We always feel that when we play a team better, if we come away healthy, we come away a better team,” he said. “Typically good teams are strong and fast and it allows us to speed up our game. We will go into our next games that way… that’s why we are in this league, we have a long-term vision of our season. If you have a vision, you can withstand some setbacks and come back and practice harder.”

Mount Si’s next match is against Sedro-Woolley High School, a two hour drive from Snoqualmie.

Kinnune said the team had an open slot in the middle of their season and he purposefully chose to play against Sedro-Woolley to be able so see how the team performs after long distance travel.

“I want us to be able to travel distance, if we get to Sedro and don’t perform well we have the opportunity to dissect that and make improvements in our travel plans,” he said. “If we go into it and are playing at the top of our game, we are in a much better place to perform when we travel.”

Mount Si is tied for third place in the league with Issaquah, Eastlake, Skyline and Newport. Kinnune is anticipating the rest of the season to include growth for the Mount Si team.

“With the 2-2 record we are learning to deal with wins and losses, we shouldn’t get too high with a win or low with a loss, come out of each experience more determined than before to get better,” he said. “My job is to remind our team that we are going to be OK if we are determined to get better.”

Jesiah Irish begins a big run in the second half of the game. (Photo courtesy of Calder Productions)