Halfway into the first quarter, Skyline fans were mocked by an “overrated” chant from the well-filled Eastlake crowd on the other side.

Things changed, quickly. Almost a minute later, a deflected pass turned into a Jordan Weil interception and six easy points for a Skyline team restless for its first true opponent since traveling to Portland to play Oregon’s top-ranked Sheldon.

Juniors Cooper Pelluer (11) and Jake Heaps, right (9) get “pumped up” before a game earlier this season.

An eager-to-recover Eastlake team then fumbled a kickoff return straight into the hands of captain Ryan Somers, who took the ball 12 yards for a Spartan score. The team’s only true blemish of the game happened on the point-thereafter, where kicker Brian Schwartz had his PAT blocked. He was four-for-four the rest of the night.

The Spartans took it to the ‘Wolves 42-0 and sent a message to Issaquah, who merely beat Eastlake 28-3 a couple of weeks before. Not only is Skyline ready for true competition, they are not daunted by playing regular foes, a key step to the successful completion of this season.

The night’s MVP was easily Gino Simone, who scored on three touchdown passes and would have had another if not knocked out of bounds on a deep route. Despite a couple of dropped passes, Simone was able to grab a 36, 25, and 1-yard touchdown score, accounting for half of the team’s points on the night.

Joey Evans, who is looking more and more like a legitimate back in his first year starting at back. Evans ran behind good and lackluster blocking on behalf of the Skyline offensive line, but was able to rack up a decent night and a two-point conversion, despite lacking a rushing touchdown.

But the line might prove to be more of an issue than once thought. After junior Jase Butorac sprained his PCL in the second quarter, the blockers seemed to become less of a guarantee than they had in the past games. In some cases, it seemed as if the Skyline line was being manhandled by the mediocre Eastlake defense; quarterback Jake Heaps was sacked quite a few times and was knocked down even more.

It is unclear whether Butorac will return for the Issaquah game, where he will be greatly needed if the team wishes to well-block a line where every member is around three-hundred pounds. A sprained PCL might be risky to play on, even if the degree of the injury was minor.

Unlike other games, the Skyline starters were not pulled at half.

Possibly because it was a rivalry game, possibly because coach Mat Taylor saw it necessary to give the starters more time before going at rival and second-in-state Issaquah. In the past, once the team had gained a comfortable lead, the starters would be taken out of the game to avoid injury. Even as Heaps was being sacked, Taylor kept him in.

Overall, the night was a mediocre one for Heaps. His throws were at times erratic, and he seemed to be mentally-off with his receivers. Most notably with sophomore Kasen Williams, who was always late breaking out of his routes only to see a ball sailing past him.

In the end, Heaps was 13/25 with 170 yards and . Many of his incompletions were drops by receivers, but he just seemed to be missing his mark tonight — much like he has the entirety of the season. Unlike a few of the previous games, he did not throw an interception. On the ground, he ran for a one-yard score to put the Spartans up 21-0 in the first quarter.

So in the end, the rivalry game that even warranted a shuttle from Eastlake High School to Skyline turned out be a successful one for the Spartans. With lewd chants and a high-powered offense at the school’s repertoire, the Wolves had little chance to upset the top-ranked Spartans in the Battle for 228th.

Correction: Skyline guard Jase Butorac is likely out for the next 4-6 weeks with a torn PCL, according to a team source.