Bainbridge High Coach Andy Grimm thinks his 2008 football team could have won a couple more games, but he’s proud of the team’s effort considering the challenges the season presented.

The Spartans finished the season 5-5 after losing 47-14 Friday night against Juanita, in a game that was originally scheduled for Bainbridge but was played at Juanita after the track at Memorial Stadium was damaged by vandals. The Spartans ended up playing only two home games because the renovated stadium wasn’t ready until mid-October.

“If we could have executed a little higher in a couple of games,” Grimm said, “we probably would have won two more. We had some injuries to key players, too. But that’s part of athletics. The senior class had an outstanding career; several of them were starters for three years and season-wise we were 19-11 during that time.”

He didn’t think the fact that the team played eight road games figured into the team’s overall record.

“We knew the situation going into the season and the kids did a great job with it,” Grimm said. “We didn’t talk about it once the season started because we didn’t want it to be a distractions. And it wasn’t. The kids were great, and the core fans did a good job of supporting the kids all season.”

Grimm said the decision to move the game to Juanita was justified because the damage to the track had to be fixed as soon as possible so that work could be done before more rain occurred. “We didn’t want to slow down the construction process on the track so it made sense to play the game at Juanita,” he said.

The Spartans, who placed fourth in the Metro League’s Mountain Division had advanced to play Juanita of KingCo with a 42-32 victory over Franklin, the fourth-placed finisher in the Metro’s Sound Division.

Juanita jumped on the Spartans early and often in the cross-over tournament game, leading 33-0 at halftime and scoring six unanswered touchdowns before the Spartans scored twice in the second half.

“They were a good team,” Grimm said. “We didn’t play very well and we were pretty banged up, but it would have been a tough game even at full-strength. Psychologically it would have been more fun to b e playing at home, but I thought we were OK with it. But for whatever reason, we didn’t have a lot of energy to compete with those guys. They just handled us from the start.”

The injury list included leading rusher Ross Cobb. The senior, who finished the season with 1,214 net yards, was injured in the first quarter after suffering an upper-leg injury after only four carries.

“That limited us to mostly running Alex Johnson,” Grimm said, “and they ganged up on us and forced us to pass more. We just never got our offense going.”

Grimm turned to sophomore quarterback Carson Zagnoc, who was making only his second start for the varsity. Grimm called Zagnoc’s play “a bright spot,” as he completed six of 17 pass attempts for 76 yards and a touchdown. The score came on a 30-yard pass to Steffan Dacquisto in the fourth quarter. Zagnoc also scored on a 1-yard run. Johnson finished with 56 yards on 13 carries.

The defense was led by James Herman, who had 12 total tackles, and Sam Snow, whose nine tackles included two sacks. For the season, Kiyle Playter’s 52 total tackles led the team, while Anthony Carter and Herman each had 49 total tackles.

While the Spartans will lose about 17 seniors, he thinks this year’s junior class and some underclassmen will step up to give the 2009 team a chance for another winning record. “We’ll need to have some of our juniors step up,” he said. “I know we’ve also got some good kids who’ll be sophomores next year coming in.”

The freshman team, coached by Deano Perlatti, finished 8-0 this season. It was a small team in numbers, with only 25 players finishing the season.

“Most of our opponents had 40-plus players,” Perlatti said. “But like I told the kids, the other teams show up with 70 kids and we showed up with one team. It was an unbelievable effort by every player in every game. Everyone had a hand in our success.

The team outscored its opponents 262 to 87, with close victories over Metro League rivals Eastside Catholic (24-20), O’Dea (20-14) and Seattle Prep (21-13).

“This group will translate into varsity help next year and in subsequent years it will be a good, strong group.

Grimm said that would be a welcome occurrence, not to mention the Spartans being able to play several games on their home turf in 2009.