Toppenish’s offense leaves foes scrambling

TOPPENISH — Josh Schutz and David Perez like what they see in the eyes of the defenders across the line of scrimmage when Toppenish sets up for an offensive play.

Confusion.

Frustration.

Toppenish quarterback Patrick Peters calls a play in the huddle during the first half of the Wildcats' Sept. 12 victory over Grandview. (Sara Gettys/Yakima Herald-Republic file)

Those feelings are understandable. The Wildcat linemen line up so close to one another that one opposing coach calls it “credit-card splits” — a reference to not being able to slip so much as a credit card between the blockers’ abutting shoulder pads.

Behind that wall, three backs in the Wildcats’ double-wing formation will be cutting past quarterback Patrick Peters, but knowing which one will get the ball — and which direction he might be going — is all but impossible to see.

But the defenders’ feeling of helplessness isn’t.

“You can just see it when you’re lining up to block somebody,” says Schutz, the Wildcats’ senior tight end. “It’ll be, say, a play to the right, and the guy’s flowing to the left and it’s a real easy block, because all you have to do is get in the way.”

“The linebackers get all confused about it,” says Perez, a 250-pound senior guard. “It’s kind of fun to watch during game films, everybody (on the defense) running out of confusion. And then you have (opponents) coming up after games and saying, ‘Boy, wow, your guys’ offense is confusing. We don’t know where the ball is.”

The ball has been in the opponents end zone often enough — and the Wildcats’ defense has been resilient enough — that Toppenish has something it hasn’t had in 17 years: a 3-0 record. Their last three-game winning streak of any kind, in fact, was a decade ago. The team that ended that run in 1998? Perennial CWAC powerhouse Othello … which plays at Toppenish tonight.

Perhaps indicative of just how much the Wildcats have gotten everybody’s attention, though, is that first thing Saturday morning, the athletic director at Othello was calling his counterpart at Toppenish wanting to trade game films. In years past, the Huskies’ coaching staff hasn’t even considered it necessary to see what offense and formations the Wildcats were running, because it really didn’t matter.

Well, it does now.

Just two seasons removed from a dismal 0-10 season and a year following a 2-8 year, Toppenish has become a team nobody wants to face. Opponents simply don’t see a double-wing offense very often. Most opposing players, in fact, have never faced its in-tight formation and its intricate blocking schemes, in which four linemen may be pulling on any one play and any back could end up with the ball at any time.

“It’s hard for a team to prepare for us,” says Schutz. “They can stick 11 guys in the box, but that just makes it easy for us because it creates this mass of humanity — and then all our back has to do is find a little crease. And he’s gone.”

Certainly, that has been the case in the Wildcats’ victories of Zillah, Grandview and Quincy. Brothers Oscar and Carlos Ramirez have combined for 635 yards, with senior Oscar averaging 9.0 yards a carry and Carlos just a shade under seven yards.

Even the Wildcats’ third option, fullback Rosendo Aguilar, has outrushed the combined totals of Toppenish’s three foes with 149 yards to their cumulative 134.

Much of that, of course, is because the Wildcats’ linemen have adapted well to the challenges of the new offense instilled by first-year coach Jason Smith.

“Our line is doing amazing,” Perez says. “(Coaches and backs) are telling us, all you have to do is hold that block a tenth of a second longer, and (the running back) is gone. Oscar and Carlos both have amazing speed, so it doesn’t really take us too long.”

The Wildcats have accomplished their 3-0 mark, amazingly, with just a single completed pass. The double-wing formation has no wide receivers, and even the tight ends know they will rarely see a ball thrown their way. Most of the time, they’re blockers.

And they love it.

“It’s fun,” Schutz says. “I look at it as, hey, we get to hit somebody every play.

“It’s really a punch-you-in-the-mouth offense. We’ll grind it out two or three yards a carry for a series, and all of a sudden Oscar or Carlos or Chendo (Aguilar) will break it out and go for a long way.”

As the Wildcats themselves already have.