Thunder have already wrapped up league’s No. 1 seed

Mountain View Thunder (6-2, 4-0 3A GSHL)

Week 1: Mountain View 34, Ferris 7
Week 2: Union 26, Mountain View 21
Week 3: Mountain View 55, Battle Ground 22
Week 4: Skyview 49, Mountain View 22
Week 5: Mountain View 38, Hudson’s Bay 25
Week 6: Mountain View 29, Kelso 23, OT
Week 7: Mountain View 56, Fort Vancouver 0
Week 8: Mountain View 49, Prairie 10

Next: vs. Evergreen, 7:30 p.m. at McKenzie Stadium

The Mountain View Thunder clinched another Class 3A Greater St. Helens League title. Win or lose in Week 9, the Thunder are the No. 1 seed from the league going into the playoffs.

Third 3A title in a row, with a little break:

This is Mountain View’s third consecutive Class 3A GSHL title … in a way.

The Thunder won in 2013, then spent two seasons in the 4A GSHL. The Thunder returned to the 3A GSHL in 2016, won the league title, and now just repeated that feat in 2017.

Mountain View coach Adam Mathieson wears two hats at his school. He also is the athletic director.

“As the athletic director, it feels good to have clinched something so that some planning can begin regarding facilities, etc,” he said. “But as a program, it was simply Week 8 and a solid performance, one that we will look to build on this week.”

Carry out the fake to extreme!

Tyrell Hall is a true teammate. He did something Friday against Prairie that made me smile.

In any offense when a quarterback fakes a handoff, a coach always asks the the running back to “carry out the fake.”

That means the player acts like he has the ball, to try to get the defense to go after him.

On one play, Hall went to his left, acted like he took a handoff, then turned upfield and ran. And ran. And ran.

Dude went 48 yards down the sideline, still acting like he had the ball.

How do I know this? The game video I was watching showed him go 48 yards because the camera operator was faked out, too.

One defender ran 20 yards after Hall before realizing he did not have the ball.

In the meantime, Mountain View quarterback Glen Perry Jr. had the ball on the other side of the field. He ran for a gain of 34 yards on the play.

So yes, Tyrell Hall carried out his fake 14 more yards than what was gained on the play.

How’d he score?

Mountain View’s first touchdown against Prairie was a 33-yard pass from Perry to Makai Anderson.

The pass was fine, thrown high to allow Anderson to outjump two defenders to get the ball. Still, when he came down at around the 7-yard line, Anderson was surrounded by three Prairie defenders. Not one of them touched Anderson as he found a way to get around and through that defense for the final steps into the end zone.

Coach Speak:

What did Adam Mathieson think of Week 8’s performance? “I thought the staff and players did a nice job in preparation for our contest. The players were pretty locked in throughout the week, and I could tell during pre-game that they had a different edge to them. I thought it was a nice step forward for us.”

Thoughts on Week 9’s game against Evergreen: “Every Friday at midnight following our game, we begin working on our next opponent,’’ Mathieson said. “It amazes me how every team we play seems to jump out at you in preparation in one way or another, and this outfit is no different. Evergreen is a very talented group. They are athletic as all get-out and have major big-play potential. Their special teams are explosive and their defense has been stout all year. It is a very good ball club, and we are looking forward to the experience of competing with them.”