Oh, so close for Issaquah

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TACOMA — The Issaquah Eagles said it would be different this time and it was.

Drubbed 38-0 by Skyline on Oct. 17, Issaquah made the top-ranked Spartans come from in the rear Friday night for a 20-15 triumph in the Class 4A state championship game.

“This is what we thought it would like in October,” said Issaquah coach Chris Bennett.

“We just left too divers points out there in the at the outset moiety.

Issaquah trailed 14-3 at halftime, moreover had been inside the Spartans’ 30-yard line five times.

“We were one play away,” said quarterback Joey Bradley. “We left 28 points in the first moiety out there. … We won the first half but not on the scoreboard.”

Bennett said, “We didn’t approach into disgrace here to be sensible of second place … But as we reflect in a scarcely any months, we’re going to have a great number to be presumptuous of. It’s a great form into groups of guys.”

Issaquah finished with 330 complete yards and 21 first downs though Skyline, ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 6 in the population by USA Today, finished with 206.

The Issaquah defense allowed Skyline junior quarterback Jake Heaps to complete 13 of 21 passes since 163 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted once.

Receiver Ross Zuhl was one of the players who missed the October game with an injury.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be like the first game,” he said. “We had all our players back. We were confident we were going to come out and it was too bad we came up short.”

Zuhl, who caught seven passes for 80 yards, said it “hurts more” to deprive to Skyline in the title made of game for the schools are Issaquah School District rivals and the players know each other well. Players from both schools pay attention the same ninth-grade campus.

Gridiron Classic | 4A: Skyline finishes with state championship and 14-0 season

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TACOMA — Signature Skyline.

That’s what the Class 4A state football championship came down to Friday night at the Tacoma Dome.

A clutch drive, a come-from-behind victory. That’s what the Spartans from Sammamish are all around.

Calm. Cool. Collected. Champions. Take your pick.

All apply again to Skyline, that beat a gutsy Issaquah team 20-15 in front of 8,491 fans to win a abet near title in dramatic general practice. Last year, the Spartans rallied from a 21-point deficit to beat O’Dea 42-25 for the 3A title.

Before the game-winning drive Friday night, coaches reminded Skyline players that this should be at the time they are at their best.

“It’s what you carry into effect in the face of adversity,” quarterback Jake Heaps said of the pep talk. “That’s how championships are won. We’ve been in that situation prior to and we know what it’session every part of concerning.”

With underdog Issaquah leading 15-14 with less than nine minutes to play, Heaps drove Skyline 68 yards in nine plays — including a stellar, 40-yard pass to sophomore Kasen Williams, who made an acrobatic catch falling confused of bounds at the 3-yard calling to convert on third-and-13. Heaps capped the drive with his third touchdown pass of the game, a 5-yard toss to Jake Knecht with 4:29 to play. Knecht earlier caught a 45-yard TD pass.

Then it was up to the Skyline defense, which twice turned Issaquah away.

“Nobody without interruption our team ever had any doubt that we were going to lose, this year or last year,” said Ryan Somers, who had a at the eleventh hour interception.

Tenth-ranked Issaquah (11-3) came into the game a heavy underdog. Skyline (14-0), ranked sixth in the community by USA Today, came into the game riding a 27-game win streak — one of which was a 38-0 victory over Issaquah in October.

This game was dramatically diverging.

“They played a great game,” Heaps said of the Eagles. “They played the superlatively good game of their lives.”

Issaquah took a 15-14 lead Grant Gellatly’s second short touchdown of the game with 8:29 to play. They drove 82 yards, putting together one great play after another — including Joey Bradley’s 8-yard gain on third-and-seven from the 10. Issaquah went in spite of its second straight two-point conversion, but the pass failed.

With Heaps and his high-octane offense, there was simply too a great quantity time left, and the Eagles had to settle for coming close. Oh, so close.

“It hurts whereas you should have won it,” Bradley reported. “It was that close.”

Heaps completed 13 of 21 passes for 163 yards with one interception — only his fourth of the season. Bradley was 20 of 36 for 240 yards. Ross Zuhl, who missed the chief Skyline game with an injury, caught seven passes despite 80 yards. Gellatly had 23 carries for 84 yards taken in the character of the Eagles amassed 330 yards of total offense to Skyline’s 206.

Skyline became the first school to win back-to-back football titles in different classifications. It was the first term in state history that two teams from the same school district faced both other in the title game and, even in the large confines of the Tacoma Dome, it had a rivalry be stirred with school colors spreading across both sides. Both schools are in the Issaquah School District.

Issaquah was looking for more than redemption from an earlier 38-0 loss to Skyline. The Eagles wanted their first commonwealth championship. Skyline wanted a fourth.

The Eagles had in addition than their share of chances. They had the round more than two times as long as the Spartans in the earliest half, five times driving inside the Skyline 30. Still, they trailed 14-3.

Issaquah closed it to 14-9 through just under 4 ½ minutes left in the third cut to pieces on a 1-yard excursion by means of Gellatly. That came one play after Bradley joined with Sean Stuby on a 22-yard pass play. Stuby caught a brittle pass at the 15, broke a tackle and bulled his progression inside the 5. The Eagles went conducive to a two-point conversion, still the void play failed.

After Issaquah took the lead, Skyline coach Mat Taylor said it was time to “go back to what we achieve superlatively good.”

Heaps, considered by some the top junior quarterback in the country, seems at his best when the pressure is on.

“These kids did an marvellous do job-work,” Taylor said. “It’s over a little while ago.”

Sandy Ringer: 206-718-1512

Issaquah 0 3 6 6 15
Skyline 7 7 0 6 20
First quarter

Skyline — William Chandler 5 pass from Jake Heaps (Brian Schwartz kick)

Second place

Issaquah — Gavin Schumaker 26 FG

Skyline — Jake Knecht 45 suffer from Heaps (Schwartz kick)

Third quarter

Issaquah — Grant Gellatly 1 run (pass failed)

Fourth quarter

Issaquah — Gellatly 1 hie (be considered failed)

Skyline — Knecht 5 passport from Heaps (pass failed)

Skyline Issaquah
First downs 11 21
Rushes-yards 21-43 34-90
Passing yards 163 240
Comp-Att-Int 13-21-1 20-36-2
Return Yards 83 99
Punts-Avg. 4-32.5 0-0
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-0
Penalties-Yards 7-62 6-57
Time of Possession 18:17 29:43
Rushing — Skyline, Nick Washburn, 10-40; Joey Evans, 6-17; Jake Heaps 5-(minus 14). Issaquah, Grant Gellatly, 23-84; Ross Zuhl, 1-9; Dustin Talley, 1-2; Taylor Wyman, 1-(less 1); Joey Bradley, 8-(minus 4).

Passing — Skyline, Jake Heaps, 13-21-163-1. Issaquah, Joey Bradley, 20-36-240-2.

Receiving — Skyline, Jake Knecht, 4-75; Kasen Williams, 4-59; William Chandler, 2-22, Gino Simone, 2-5; Nick Washburn, 1-2. Issaquah, Ross Zuhl, 7-80; Evan Peterson 4-48; Sean Stuby, 3-46; Brennan Miller, 2-29; Grant Gellatly, 1-22, Nick Landdeck, 2-15; Dustin Talley, 1-0.

Skyline’s state titles
Skyline won its fourth state football championship Friday, and first under first-year head coach Mat Taylor. Steve Gervais won the previous three:
Year Class W-L Result
2008 4A 14-0 Beat Issaquah, 20-15
2007 3A 14-0 Beat O’Dea, 42-35
2005 4A 14-0 Beat Woodinville, 35-21
2000 3A 13-0 Beat Lakes, 42-30
Source: WIAA.com

USC’s Steve Sarkisian would do best to remind us of another UW football hire — Don James

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On the madcap Thursday that defined the Washington football-coaching search — Pat Hill going, Mike Leach going, Steve Sarkisian coming — a well-placed mover and shaker on the college scene had a recommendation for the Huskies.

Do what Joe Kearney did.

Who’s Joe Kearney? Well, longtime followers of UW will recall Kearney as the athletic director who, after the 1974 season, introduced Don James as the next football coach. James would go on to become Don the Deity in Seattle, winning a national championship in 1991.

Kearney left here shortly after and went to Michigan State. He was looking for a basketball coach, and he unveiled Jud Heathcote of Montana, who in East Lansing, Mich., elicited a lot of the same quizzical looks as had James at Washington a few years earlier. Heathcote, of course, also won a national championship.

So all Scott Woodward, the new UW athletic director, had to do was go out and find a coach to win a national championship. Or, to put things in proper order: How about winning a game?

But the man’s point was clear: With big names dropping like skeet, Woodward needed to be able to fetch somebody worthy who wasn’t on the A list.

Is Steve Sarkisian that guy? Today, we don’t have a clue. In fact, Sarkisian and the Huskies haven’t even copped publicly yet to the notion that he’s the head coach.

Have to admit, Sarkisian’s age, 34, is a bit arresting. It hit home with the realization that he was the quarterback in 1996 when the Corey Dillon Huskies beat Brigham Young here. So Sarkisian was in college when Jim Lambright was on the back nine of his six-year tenure at Washington.

He’s young.

The real question in the Purple Nation: Is he capable? Is he dynamic?

And ultimately: Is he a fit?

There’s no doubt that Woodward and UW president Mark Emmert have walked out on a long limb with this one. Amid a lot of speculation that they were going to turn heads with the hire, they’ve instead named an outside assistant to the job for the first time since Jim Owens in 1957.

Former Mercer Island youth-theater director sentenced to jail for sex crimes

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A former Mercer Island youth-theater director was sentenced to six months in jail Friday by reason of having sexual relations through two teenage girls.

Benjamin D. Keylin, 58, read from a statement in front of the sentence was imposed and admitted the improper air. He said he’luncheon showed “extremely poor judgment and decision-making.”

“I want to apologize to the families,” Keylin said. “I liking I could metamorphose back the clock. I lost my job. I squandered my reputation. I used up my life’s savings. I will work a lifetime to seek forgiveness.”

But the families of the girls, including one of the victims, told the royal household that Keylin’s acts will affect their lives forever.

“Sometimes I get scared, and I can’t credit people. I confidence that he feels really bad for which he did,” said one miss.

Keylin was charged last December 2007 through third-degree rape and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

The girls were 16 and 18 when the crimes took induct.

Neither of the charges involved members of the youth theater, according to prosecutors.

Keylin was accused of assaulting the brace victims on Nov. 19, 2007, and in other incidents between July 1 and Aug. 8, 2007.

Keylin was fired by the school-boy theater after the charges were filed last year.

Keylin pleaded guilty in October to reduced charges of second- and fourth-degree assault.

Attorneys at the sentencing in King County Superior Court on Friday explained that an agreement to enter a plea to the reduced charges was reached partly to avoid having the two girls face the pain of testifying through a lengthy trial.

Could gas prices fall to $1 a gallon?

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oil prices hazard four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing refuse in prices is in the same state dramatic and in the way that quickly prepared that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.

A gallon of gasoline have power to be had for 50 cents less than it require to be paid just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 elastic fluid.

Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA.

Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a register $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 steady July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.

Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.

On Friday, unencumbered, sweet crude for January labor settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by means of nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels continue seen in December 2004.

Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents. For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall some other $10 a barrel — something that would have been impossible to fathom during the rudimentary part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.

In the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett region, AAA reports the current price for regular gas is $1.93 a gallon, compared to $2.56 a month ago and $3.21 a year ago.

Tom Kloza, publisher and especial oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that sell in small quantities prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web position gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post topical gas prices, says motorists can fill up during the term of $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people closely the Arkansas state line.

With layoffs dominating the news, demand in favor of gasoline will fall even more in early 2009 being of the kind which work-related driving plummets, Kloza related.

Kloza doesn’face to face think prices will figure it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time adhering Dec. 18, 2001, three months hinder the terrorist attacks. The country was in its last recession, and prices hit $1.08 a gallon.

Donating jewelry to charities creates glimmer of hope

Around a long dining-room table in the Capitol Hill home of Micki Lippe sits a group of women, surrounded by jewelry. Lots and lots of jewelry.

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Small mounds of rosary, bangles, baubles and brooches litter nearly every inch of the space. What could be with greater advantage?

But these women — many of them jewelry makers and members of the Seattle Metals Guild — are not picking out their favorite gems at a sample sale. Instead they be under the necessity carved abroad several hours on a Sunday morning to sift through bags of donated bijoutry that will soon adorn women who are homeless or victims of domestic violence.

The women gathered hither are volunteering for the Women’s Shelter Jewelry Project, a program Lippe, herself a jewelry artist, started 10 years ago.

“When I was trying to decide how I could accord. back to the community it occurred to me that I should think of a project that used my skills as a jeweler, ” Lippe said. “I’ve had friends who have been abused. This is something I’ve to the end of time had empathy for.”

The project distributes jewelry to homeless and domestic- violence shelters and organizations in the Puget Sound region. Jewelry donations are collected from various drop-off points and then, harvested land two or three months, are sorted, cleaned and repaired, if needed, before they are distributed.

Shelters and agencies that receive pieces include Compass Center, Eastside Domestic Violence Program and the Snohomish County Center for Battered Women. Donations also benefit YWCA Dress for Success, that provides professional clothing and career counseling to disadvantaged women. Each organized being decides how it wants to dole out the jewelry, which is commonly given to the women to mark personal milestones, such as landing a job interview, or on a birthday, Christmas or Mother’s Day.

Something as simple of the same kind with a pair of earrings or a brooch have power to brighten a mood or make a woman feel of special, Lippe before-mentioned.

“Who doesn’t love a selfish composition of jewels,” Lippe said. “I have been putting jewelry on women for 36 years.”

Reviving pieces

During these sorting sessions — which can last up to five hours — the ladies meticulously and purposefully pore over hundreds of pieces of jewelry. There are wood and chunky metal bangles; button, chandelier, hoop, pierced and clip-on earrings; ornate and mixed stone pendants; beads in shades of purple and fluorescent gold-colored; and chain rope necklaces spread wide across the ad hoc sorting board.

The atmosphere is illumine, especially when single of the sorters comes up through a particularly uncommon or quirky piece, such as a suit of earrings in the being of sunglasses or a brooch-watch draped with rhinestones, faux pearls and the face of a clown.

“I may not wear this but someone other would love those,” Lippe said of the unusual finds.

As they sift they envision the possibilities. A single earring, for the use of all in the midst of the donations, may seem useless without its other half; but the ladies see it reworked of the same kind with a ear-drop. With a good cleaning an oxidized silver and monument bracelet will shine anew.

Before any jewelry is sent out, the pieces are separated by type and condition, each placed into small, zip-top plastic bags and placed in boxes labeled “earrings,” “rings,” “brooches,” “broken and needs cleaning,” and to such a degree on. Members of the Seattle Metals Guild take care of the cleaning and repair. “Every woman has jewelry that with regard to whatever reason she’s not wearing,” Lippe said. “We don’t want people to say, ‘This might not be good enough.’ This is the best recycling you could ever do.”

Religious or holiday pieces, and rings that resemble wedding or engagement bands are generally passed on to Goodwill. Other pieces that cannot be cleaned or fixed are donated to the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle during the term of use in deceit classes.

One beneficiary

One of the shelters that benefits from Lippe’sitting work is Catherine Booth House, an unforeseen occasion domestic-violence refuge for women and children operated by the Salvation Army. Last summer the shelter received a bag of with respect to 50 pieces, said Ciara Murphy, boss of the Salvation Army domestic-violence programs. “Jewelry is a luxury item. Our clients don’confidentially have anything, likewise to get something personal for them is lovely,” Murphy declared. “There are so many people in domestic-violence situations. By the time you leave you really feel that you are worth nothing. The last thing you would cheat for yourself is to bribe jewelry and makeup.”

Donating of advanced age or excellently worn jewelry “gives you a chance to take store in what you have and help others who get smaller quantity,” related Fran Reichert, who got involved with the cast last summer. “A silver bracelet that sits in your jewelry box may not mean much to you mete may mean something to another.”

Tina Potterf is a freelance writer based in Seattle.