Prep Football: Kelso puts on sideshow at Monarchs' expense

Week 1: Hilanders spoil Mark Morris' much anticipated debut

Jordan Nailon / Blast Zone Media

KELSO – Somebody forgot to tell Zaden Hoover and the Kelso Hilanders that Friday night was supposed to be about the Mark Morris Monarchs.
With a new head coach for the first time in more than two decades, the Monarchs rolled over the bridge to cross the Cowlitz River intent on knocking off the Scots and dedicating the beginning of the Mike Peck era with aplomb. The boys in the golden helmets had other ideas, though, especially Hoover, as Kelso piled on for a 44-12 victory over the new look Monarchs.
The junior wideout and defensive back did his best to steal the show all by himself, tallying three touchdowns and two interceptions while seemingly finding his way to the middle every play that mattered. To hear the mop-topped dynamo tell it, the Hilanders were at once well prepared and unconcerned with the Monarchs newfangled attack.
“I think we handled it well. We wanted to come out hot, score, and that’s what we did,” Hoover said. “We shut them down and they didn’t get no offense.”
And while the Monarchs’ offensive unit certainly struggled in their first time out of the chute in 2024, the Hilanders did not.
Hoover wound up hauling in three passes for 39 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing once for a 14-yard touchdown in the second half. Those outputs paired well with his two interceptions, including a pick near the end zone that put the first half to bed.
Aden Mintonye powered the Kelso rushing attack with 14 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns. His longest scamper went for 41 yards, while his most impressive jaunt saw a Monarch defender dragged 15 yards down field like a live anchor while clinging haplessly to the tail of his untucked undershirt.
“They got some early pressure to us inside but once we got that squared away we were able to do what we wanted to do,” Kelso coach Steve Amrine said. “I think people saw it. If people want to play wide we can go inside and if people want to play us inside we can go out on the edge.”
And in his triumphant return from a season ending, career threatening and nearly life-altering fight with Paget-Schroetter Syndrome last year, Kelso quarterback Tucker Amrine looked more than comfortable back under center on the gridiron. The Hilanders’ senior signal caller completed 6 of 10 passes for 113 yards with a touchdown in the mix. His longest pass went for 36 yards, and he looked poised rolling out on bootlegs and reading changing defensive fronts.

“I think probably when I get home around midnight or 1 (a.m.) that part will probably sink in, but right now I’m just proud of him as a team member. He’s a good football player but an even better kid,” Coach/Dad Amrine said. “To be able to experience high school athletics tonight, that’s what sports are all about.”

Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for best laid plans to go off the rails for the visitors.

After spending the offseason getting Monarchs fans excited for an all-pass-all-the-time offense, Mark Morris came out on the first possession of the prep football season and ran the ball on every snap. After several penalties and no meaningful gains Mark Morris lined up to punt from inside its own twenty yard line, only to see the snap sail extra high and long all the way to the end zone for a safety.

And just like that, Kelso found itself leading 2-0 with just 22 seconds eclipsed off the game clock. All the excitement the Monarchs had built up in the offseason had evaporated quickly under hazy skies and in front of a jeering crowd and a hostile host.

“Probably some nerves, for sure, and Kelso is a proud program,” Peck said. “Our kids were excited as heck to play them, which I love that. I don’t think they were nervous in a bad way, they were just anxious and excited and fired up and I love that. That’s one of those things about growing as a team is we want to have that edge, but you have to learn how to play within that edge, and that’s a very fine line.”

After notching the season-starting safety the Hilanders wasted little time putting up their first offensive points of the season. That score came on a 41-yard run by Mintonye with 6:36 left in the first quarter and a point after kick by Tate Mead put the hosts up 9-0 less than two minutes into the season.

The Monarchs weren’t going to go away quickly and quietly, though. Fittingly, their first successful drive began with a 55-yard pass from Nathan Stephens to Decker Bartell down the far sideline, and was quickly capped by a 24-yard pass from Stephens to Brady Schlecht for a touchdown.

That sort of effort was indicative of the energy the Monarchs brought on nearly every play, even when faced with staggering and rapidly diminishing odds.

“I thought Aimen Flemens had a great game on defense,” Peck said. “And Mac West, I don’t think he took a play off on both sides of the ball.”

After a failed kick attempt the Monarchs trailed just 9-6 with 5:31 left in the first quarter, and that score would remain intact into the second quarter when the Hilanders began to beat the visitors at their own game by dominating the pass attack.

Kelso’s ensuing drive saw Amrine connect with Hoover for a 16-yard gain before spreading to ball around to Bryar Iddings for a 30-yard gain down inside the 10 yard line. Mintonye punctuated the scoring march with a 6-yard run around the end with a hop-skip-and-a-jump over the goal line near the pylon. That score, plus a point after kick by Mead, pushed the hosts’ lead out to double digits at 16-6 with 8:39 left before the half.

Hoover’s first interception of the night came inside the red zone on a long heave from Carter Huhta, the second arm in the Monarchs’ two-headed passing attack. A taunting penalty following an emphatic celebration pushed the Hilanders back to the 9-yard line to start their drive and a 6-yard pass from Amrine to Hoover bookended the 91-yard drive with a touchdown to put Kelso up 23-6 with 2:36 left in the second quarter.

“Really smart player. Really fast. Super fun kid,” Amrine observed of Hoover. “He just did an awesome job. He came out late last year and by the time he got going he was really good. But it didn’t take any time at all to get him going this year.”

A promising retort by Mark Morris came to an end when Hoover pulled down his second interception of the day on a long toss by Stephens as time expired going into the intermission.

“The quarterback was staring at the receiver every time so I knew where he was throwing it,” Hoover noted.

But Hoover wasn’t just impressed with his own reflection. He believes this year’s squad of Hilanders have something special that fans won’t be able to read in a box score.
“I love this team, probably the best chemistry team I’ve ever had. We’re all there for each other,” Hoover said. “I would say Kainoa Fili impressed me the most, I mean he was hitting hard, he was coming for everything.”

And after a full scale spectacle of a halftime show that included cheerleaders, the kilties color guard, a marching band, several T-Rex dinosaur suits and a few avant grade pterodactyl the Zaden Hoover show resumed in kind. Less than two minutes after the intermission ended Hoover had found the end zone again, this time on a reverse that saw him carry the pigskin 14-yards to the end zone.
That score put the Hilanders up 30-6 and essentially eliminated any remaining aspirations the Monarchs had for a full scale comeback in their debut under a brand new system.
Kelso added on with a 15-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Anders Dahl to Hoover in the corner of the end zone less than six minutes later to extend its lead to 31 points.

“Give credit to our guys up front, man. I mean Hunter Barajas did a good job and a lot of guys did good stuff and it was just a fun night for the Hilanders,” Coach Amrine said. “That front was a brand new front for us. Other than (Jase) Sloan-er and one of the Dillies, they were all brand new.”

The Monarchs finally gave their fans something to cheer about early in the fourth quarter when Huhta hit Danniel Kobayashi-Gallagher with a 30-yard touchdown strike. The good vibes didn’t last long in the Mark Morris section, though, as the Scots responded with a systematic drive of their own that ended with a one-yard plunge up the middle by Blake Parsons for the final score of the evening.

“What a night,” Coach Amrine noted as he watched the crowd filter out of the grandstands and spread across Schroeder Field to celebrate with the Hiladers in shoulder pads and helmets. “This might be as packed as it’s been since I’ve been here. And kudos to to Michael (Peck), he’s go them playing hard, man, and that makes it fun again.”

As for the Monarchs, they’ll get right back to the drawing board in order to correct their mistakes from Week 1.
“The biggest thing I told them after the game is we learned we have dudes who will be physical, they’ll compete and they’ll play hard for four quarters. And those types of teams are hard to find,” Peck said. “Now we just need to learn how to play that way while doing our job, and being disciplined enough to do that each play.”

And the Monarchs will have to figure that out quickly if they want to put up a more impressive performance in Week 2 when Seton Catholic descends up on Longview Memorial Stadium.
“Obviously this isn’t the outcome we wanted, but I know we’re headed int he right direction,” Peck said. “We’re going to be much better in Game 2 than we were in Game 1, and we’re going to be even better in Game 3 than we’ll be in Week 2.”

Mark Morris (0-1) will host Seton Catholic on Friday at 7 p.m. at Longview Memorial Stadium.

As for the Hilanders, they’ll also get back to work next week, but it’s easier to clean up the little things when so many big things broke the right way on the big stage.
“Number one, we’ve gotta keep our composure a little bit better,” Amrine said. “Obviously it’s a dogfight but once we kept our composure in the second half we did a much better job.”

Kelso (1-0) will host River Ridge on Friday, at 7 p.m. back at Ed Laulainen Field.


BOX SCORE
At Ed Laulainen Stadium
HILANDERS 44, MONARCHS 12
Mark Morris 6 0 6 0 – 12
Kelso 9 14 14 7 – 44

Scoring Summary
KEL – Safety (7:38 1Q)
KEL – Aden Mintonye 41-yd run / kick failed (6:36 1Q)
MM – Nathan Stephens 24-yd pass to Brady Schlecht / kick failed (5:31 1Q)
KEL – Mintonye 6-yd run / Tate Mead kick (8:39 2Q)
KEL – Tucker Amrine 6-yard pass to Zaden Hoover / Mead kick (2:37 2Q)
KEL – Z. Hoover 6-yard run / Mead kick (10:03 3Q)
KEL – Anders Dahl 17-yard pass to Z. Hoover / Mead kick (2:37 3Q)
MM – Carter Hutha 28-yard pass to Danniel Kobayashi / Conversion failed (11:24 4Q)
KEL – Blake Parsons 1-yard run/ Mead kick (8:40 4Q)

Individual Leaders
Passing: KEL – Tucker Amrine 6 for 10 / 113 yards / 1 TD, Anders Dahl 4 for 4 / 53 yards / 1 TD; MM – Nathan Stephens 6 of 12 / 115 yards / 1 TD / 1 INT, Carter Huhta 4 of 9 / 43 yards / 1 TD / 1 INT.

Rushing: KEL – Aden Mintonye 14 for 107 / 2 TD, Blake Parsons 4 for 62 / 1 TD, Aiden Richmond 2 for 24; MM – N. Stephens 9 for 107, Kenny Mullens 14 for 64.

Receiving: KEL – Bryar Iddings 3 for 59, Zaden Hoover 3 for 39, Alex Dieter 1 for 36; MM – Decker Bartell 4 for 81, Danniel Kobyashi 1 for 28, Brady Schlecht 1 for 24, Mac West 2 for 16.

Editor's Note: This a Week 1 production of Blast Zone Media. Look for more local sports coverage in the near future from familiar bylines like Jordan Nailon, Ben Zimmerman, Nick Sisson and Sam Barbee.