For a few, fleeting moments at Skyline High School Friday night in the 4A KingCo title game, it looked like Bothell may be able to get off the mat and claim the crown.

“Mat Taylor is a great offensive play caller,” Bothell head coach Tom Bainter said after the game. “He caught us in some situations where we were vulnerable and they made some plays.”

Bothell quarterback Ross Bowers found Dayzell Wilson for the first of his two scores on the night to get their team on the board on the following drive and Wilson’s second score, which came after a one-play Skyline drive that ended in a Ryan Croson interception along the sideline, gave the Cougars life for the first time since the opening frame.

But once again, Skyline barely secured possession on a pooch kick before the Bothell kickoff team could recover. The Spartans’ offense seemed to put things away with a nearly six-minute drive deep into Bothell territory.

But a missed field goal gave the Cougars one final chance to close the gap further, before a turnover on downs with just less than three minutes remaining ended their last-ditch comeback bid.

“Offensively, we didn’t score enough early,” Bainter said. “We’re young, we got discouraged early in the first half and didn’t play with the emotion we should.”

The Cougars’ defense forced a fourth down and 11 on the first drive of the game on a third down sack by senior Andrew Jones, but surrendered a 33-yard scoring strike from Anderson to Derek Loville in the seam of the defense to give Skyline a lead it would not surrender.

Bowers and the offense moved inside the Spartans’ 25 on two occasions in the first two frames, but each fizzled as penalties and pressure from the edge rushing duo of Cameron Saffle and Josh Wright proved too much to overcome.

Bainter lined up his offense on fourth and three from the Skyline 25 before a delay of game and Saffle sack got the Spartans off the field. Conference all-purpose yardage leader Sam McPhearson helped key a drive that went to the 35-yard line early in the second quarter, but this time defensive back Danny Sinatro intercepted a pass, holding on as he collided with a teammate, which led to his team’s third score of the half.

“We know we’re a dominant defense,” Saffle said. “We had a great game overall.”

Skyline head coach Mat Taylor said post game with a receiving corps that lost each of its top 10 pass catchers from last year, along with All-American quarterback Max Browne, the passing game has been forced to grow throughout the season and he knew it would be needed to claim a second straight conference crown.

“I made up my mind on Monday we really needed to see what we could do throwing the ball,” he said. “I was really proud of the way the kids responded.”

The Bothell offense came into the game as one of the most prolific in the state, scoring 42 or more points in all but two games this season (one of those was a 35-0 win over Woodinville last week and the other a 42-6 blowout to Bellevue). But with the KingCo title on the line, the Cougars managed only a pair of second half touchdowns, both on long strikes from Bowers to the junior Wilson over a two-minute span and converted too few third and fourth downs throughout in the loss.

Bainter said despite the loss, he is confident his group will rebound in time to make a run back to the Tacoma Dome, a place Bothell has not been since 2009. That task begins next week in the

district playoffs at home against Puyallup on Nov. 8 or 9.

“You learn a lot more from a loss than a win,” he said. “If that is the case, we’ll be okay.”