Sigurdson satisfied with defense

The South Kitsap defense was two minutes away from its second consecutive shutout. Though that goal wasn’t realized, SK coach D.J. Sigurdson was more than pleased with the performance from the defense.

The D-line continually put pressure on Shelton’s talented quarterback A.J. Mell.

Sigurdson said the team didn’t do anything new on defense, but admitted they did some things different.

“We shifted a little bit,” Sigurdson said. “When we watched them play other teams, they did a nice job of adjusting to teams’ blitz. We wanted to blitz and we didn’t want them taking advantage of that.”

The SK linebackers continued to fill gaps as if they were about to blitz but sometimes they’d pull back and other times they’d go with full force.

Shelton was never able to pick up what SK’s defense was about to do.

Senior defensive back Sean Banks said the defense used simple fundamentals.

“We watched films all week and just played defense,” Banks said. “We did what the coaches told us to do and we played well.”

Sigurdson said the defensive players, who had struggled a bit until a couple of weeks ago, wanted to make a statement.

“I think the kids have taken it that way,” Sigurdson said. “They want to be known for their defense.”

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Teams know what senior Ryan Cole can do and yet they still cannot stop him.

Cole said it’s not so much him but the makeup of the SK offense.

More specifically, the throwing ability of quarterback Travis Vetters.

Vetters had a season-high 19 attempts and completed 10 of them for 148 yards.

“The reason why we can throw a lot is because we’ve got a great quarterback with a great arm,” Cole said. “He can move well and read defenses, and that makes it better for us.”

The free safeties have cheated toward the line of scrimmage to try and stop Cole, but that’s where Vetters has been able to hit wide-open receivers, or receivers that are only in single coverage.

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Cole was a workhorse at Shelton. His 36 carries were a career high, and though he looked tired near the end, Sigurdson said looks can be deceiving.

Cole said he’ll carry as many times as it takes as long as he is helping the team.

“I had a lot more carries than I’ve had in the past,” he said. “I just gotta get adjusted to getting this many carries, because pretty soon in the playoffs it’s going to be like this a lot.”

***

SK is still trying to shake off the penalty bug.

The Wolves were called for eight penalties for 81 yards — all by the offense.

Sigurdson said that’s the biggest concern going into the next round of games.

“We had a lot of penalties, and that’s frustrating,” Sigurdson said. “We’ll have to overcome those. I think most of them were honest mistakes where guys try to bury somebody and gets his hands outside the frames.”

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