Your Highline High School Pirates (8-1) varsity football team will take on the Steilacoom Sentinels (5-4) in the first playoff game of the 2023 season this Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Highline Memorial Stadium.
This is a winner-take-all, must-win game – according to the WIAA, this one is a “Winner to State, Loser Out” match.
Winners of this first round will move onto the next, with the WIAA Seeding Committee determining the State Tournament Bracket.
The Pirates – the #3 seed – ended the regular season with an overall 8-1 and 6-0 league record to win the KingCo 2A championship for the third year in a row, and have won their last two games by scores of 76-0 and 60-0.
Oh, and they’re averaging over 55 points per game for the 2023 season. Wow.
Pirate quarterback Ronan Rasmussen is the #1 QB in the league, with 58 completions out of 88 attempts for 1,184 yards, and a per-game average of 148 yards. His QB rating is 139.2.
Other Pirate standouts include:
- Jamaine Matthews Jr. is averaging 82.7 rushing yards per game.
- Marquawn McCraney has 10 touchdowns for the season.
- Yannis Togi is averaging 6.2 tackles per game.
- Rashad Carriere Jr. has 13.0 sacks for the season.
The Pirates are coached by former UW Husky running back Deontae Cooper, who has really turned this team around since taking over in 2019.
