Washington Huskies RB commit Ansu Sanoe (Lakeridge) cares about one stat — team wins

The Lakeridge (Oregon) junior added to his highlight reel last week as he helped the Pacers improve to 4-0

Lakeridge junior Ansu Sanoe has rushed for 397 yards and nine touchdowns through four games. / Photo by Rene Ferran

Ansu Sanoe might not be putting up numbers that scream out you’re watching the best running back recruit in Oregon.

Instead, he’s churning out highlight-reel plays that show why the University of Washington locked in a commitment from the Lakeridge junior in April.

He added several more last Friday night in the Pacers’ 34-9 victory at Wilsonville. Sanoe ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns and caught a 37-yard pass flaring out of the backfield in which he spun out of one tackle, swatted another defender away like one would smash a fly against the wall and dragged a third several yards before finally going down.

“We’ve been working on that play for as long as I’ve been here,” Sanoe said. “It hits when it hits, and it doesn’t when it doesn’t. And it just hit today. Everybody did their job on the perimeter blocking, so, I mean, shout-out to my teammates on that one.”

Through four games, Sanoe has rushed for 397 yards and nine touchdowns on 54 carries in a balanced attack that has the Pacers 4-0 entering their Three Rivers League opener Friday night at Oregon City.

And it’s that statistic — four wins in four games — that Sanoe said he’s focused on.

“I mean, we’re undefeated, so my stats don’t really matter to me,” he said. “I’ve done what I wanted to do. I know where I’m going after high school football, so stats aren’t really a big thing for me as long as we’re getting wins.”

Sanoe also understands that the schedule plays a factor in why his statistics aren’t as gaudy as those of players such as Sprague senior Kenya Johnson (654 yards and 10 touchdowns in four games) and Ridgeview’s Ishon Ortiz (868 yards and 11 touchdowns).

The Pacers were in a running clock in their first two games, and they faced stout defenses the past two weeks in Mountainside and Wilsonville. The Wildcats clearly focused on stopping Sanoe, registering three tackles for loss and holding him on eight other carries to two or fewer yards.

“It’s not easy, because we’re playing a lot of great teams,” Sanoe said. “So, as long as we come out here and get wins, that’s all that’s on my mind.”

His two long runs were things of beauty — a 26-yard touchdown run where he shrugged off a couple of arm tackles and a 48-yarder picking through traffic before bursting through a hole that opened on the left side of the line.

“I’ve been trying to work on using my size a little more this year,” said Sanoe, who has bulked up 15 pounds to 6-foot-2, 225 pounds this season.

With teams intent on slowing Sanoe, opportunities have opened for the Pacers in the passing game, as seen on the first play of Friday’s game, when Marcus Post beat one-on-one coverage on the right sideline for an 81-yard touchdown.

Junior lefty Drew Weiler threw his first interception of the season Friday but also had a career-high 268 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 746 yards and 10 touchdowns on 48-of-65 passing (73.9% completions) while spreading the wealth among eight receivers.

“We have a lot of talented guys, so to beat us, you’ve got to prepare to beat us,” Sanoe said. “And we take advantage when we feel like they’re not prepared to beat us. That’s what happened on that first play tonight.”

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