Just chatted with Mercer Island football coach Brett Ogata about last Friday’s win over Ingraham in the pouring rain. The Islanders earned their second win of the season 45-0 (click here for a full recap of the game).

Overall, he said it came down to the fact the team believed in itself.

“The kids played with a lot of confidence,” Ogata said. He said the defensive line had their best game of the season, keeping Ingraham from scoring all night. Ogata also said despite lots injuries on offensive line (and really just the team as a whole) the guys stepped up and made it happen.

This week the Islanders head to Sammamish for a KingCo basement showdown. Mercer Island football currently sits in the sixth spot in the KingCo league with a 0-4, 2-5 record while the Totems are 0-5, 1-6 this season. But Ogata said rather than focusing on Sammamish, Mercer Island is focused on what they need to do, as has been the trend all season.

“Really it’s about what we need to do to get better each week,” he said. “We worry about Mercer Island, not the other team and that’s how we’ll get to the highest potential for us.”

One thing this rebuilding year has shown, especially younger players, is that opportunities abound. The team has battled injuries and sickness throughout the season, along with many of the other teams at the school. But it’s been specifically hard on football as Ogata said the team lost “crucial players” to season-ending injuries.

“We have had a ton of them,” Ogata said of injuries to players. “A lot of younger players are hurt too, but the majority of the season ending injuries have been seniors.” Of that group of six who now find themselves stuck on the sidelines four are seniors, a junior and a sophomore.

After Sammamish on Friday night the Islanders will host Juanita in the last home game of the regular season. Ogata said mathematically the team is not slated to make the playoffs. He said if they had beat Mount Si there was a chance, but now it looks a lot less likely. After the Juanita game on Oct. 30, the Islanders will play a crossover game with one of the Metro 3A teams. Who exactly it will be depends partially on how the team plays this weekend and how the Metro league shakes out.

Ogata said the most likely scenarios for the crossover game are if the Islanders beat Sammamish, most likely they will play their last game away against the Metro #8 team OR if the Islanders lose Friday night to the Totem they would host the Metro #9 team on Nov. 6.

It all just depends on the numbers.