THE BIGGEST SURPRISE in years on the North Olympic Peninsula gridiron occurred Friday night when Sequim was special all over the field, but primarily on special teams, in a 16-14 triumph over No. 9 North Kitsap.
Prep football Friday nights are fun on the North Olympic Peninsula, but results tend to be fairly predictable.
The last time I can remember being as shocked at the results of a Friday night football game was when Port Townsend lost to Charles Wright 24-14 in a winner-to-state district playoff game back on Nov. 7, 2014.
The Redhawks had roughed up the Tarriers 49-6 seven days prior in a nonleague game, but Charles Wright broke out a new defense, designed runs for their quarterback on offense and took advantage of four second-half turnovers in the rematch.
So how did the Wolves snap a 7-year losing streak to North Kitsap, a streak which saw an average margin of 35-12 in those Vikings victories?
First, Sequim respected its opponents, winners of two straight Olympic League 2A Division championships and 19 consecutive regular-season contests, but didn’t fear them.
It was the 98th victory in 15 seasons in Sequim for Wolves coach Erik Wiker. He’s won Olympic League championships and sent Sequim teams to state, so his eye for the opposition has been well-honed.
“All week we put together a game plan that gave us a chance to win” Wiker said after the game. “If we beat them I didn’t think it would be an upset-upset. Like last year [a 42-0 North Kitsap win] would have been an incredible upset. I think they were better last year. This year, it was a game we really could have won.”
A major portion of Sequim’s gameplan was tempo based. The Wolves, who already use a no-huddle spread offense, quickened the pace of the game against the Vikings and took away much of the benefit of North Kitsap’s well-stocked coaching staff.
“[North Kitsap] are very well coached and they can make in-game adjustments,” Wiker said. “By us getting out there quick they are playing reaction football instead of dictating on defense what they are doing. We wanted to dictate things on offense and it turned out to be a good gameplan.”
The quick no-huddle worked like this: Sequim’s wide receivers would get the play via a signal corresponding to a wristband worn by each player and come set on the line of scrimmage while the Wolves linemen and backfield would make a fast play call close to the ball and follow up with a quick snap almost as soon as players were set. It gave the Vikings zero time to switch out of their basic defensive formation.
“If we line up and they know what formation we are lined up in they can adjust to it,” Wolves quarterback Riley Cowan said. “They have good coaching and discipline, so it was great to just pick a play, go with it and have them have to play in their base defense.”
Wiker said the team has been working on the quick no-huddle snaps since spring football.
“In spring what we were trying to do was go from one formation and explode out to another or go from one to come back and it was a little technical for the kids,” Wiker said.
So Wiker took a page out of Auburn University head coach Gus Malzahn’s playbook and melded some looks together. Malzahn, a former high school football coach in Arkansas, has long been a source of offensive inspiration.
“The sugar huddle is what they call it at Auburn, where they have everybody in and they bust out and do it,” Wiker said. “We used to do that a long time ago with our tempo stuff, but only our big stuff, like two tight ends and three backs. We would just come up and tempo and go.
“What I thought of, because I wanted to be in our trips and stuff, is to have both receivers out, way out, and we can go trips [three wide receivers on side of the field] this way, trips that way, empty, or three-back with our two receivers out. So that’s how I made that up. All our receivers can stay on the line and they can switch from X to Z depending on what formation it was. And it was faster, the little guys are already established on the line.”
Sequim wasn’t lights-out offensively against the Vikings, but were able to move the ball up and down the field with the run and the pass.
And when the Wolves were stopped, Cowan’s big right leg did the heavy lifting on special teams.
Cowan was 3 for 3 on three field goal attempts (and also had an attempt hit a low-hanging power line running across the Sequim field-the Wolves attempted the kick again as part of the field’s ground rules according to an official working the game).
His punts pinned North Kitsap inside the Vikings’ own 5-yard line on three different occasions and he also coffin-cornered North Kitsap on two kickoffs.
It’s by far the best special teams performance I’ve seen by a high school kicker and I grew up watching Django Amerson routinely boot 35-yard field goals as an all-state kicker for Port Townsend in 1993.
Take away one Vikings drive that started on the Sequim 30 after an interception and North Kitsap’s average starting field position on nine offensive drives was its own 12-yard line.
The Wolves did allow one long scoring march down the field, a 10-play, 95-yard drive in the first half, but Sequim bottled up the play-action bootleg passes the Vikings love to use and pulled out the win.
Offense, defense and some very special teams.
