Photos and summary by Lawrence Kane
Special to West Seattle Blog

At Memorial Stadium downtown, the West Seattle High School Wildcats defeated the Franklin Quakers 26-12 Friday night to begin league play on a high note.

The grueling, three-hours-and-20-minutes game was marred by eight injury timeouts and countless penalties, yet the team persevered to earn their first win of the season.

The Wildcats’ defense harassed the Franklin quarterback all night, held them scoreless in the first half, and ended the game with a sack as the clock ran out in the fourth quarter.

With two quarterbacks out due to knee injuries and the third nursing a sprained ankle, Coach Burggraff tasked wide receiver/defensive back Carter Golgart (#12) to run the offense.

After knocking the rust off during a scoreless first quarter, the team racked up 20 straight points before the Quaker offense could respond. Golgart threw one interception, but made up for it by picking off the opposing quarterback twice while playing defense. He also ran for a 2-point conversion.

Raphael Jackson (#24; top photo) played spectacularly, rushing for well over 200 yards and all four of the Wildcats’ touchdowns.

The Metro League schedule has WSHS back at Memorial Stadium next Friday (September 27), with a 5 pm game against Cleveland.