PORT TOWNSEND — Chimacum preached trust in practice all week.
The focus on staying together paid off in a big way on both sides of the ball for the Cowboys in an Olympic League 1A football contest at Memorial Field on Friday.
Chimacum’s defense rose to the occasion, forcing two critical Klahowya turnovers on downs in the final minutes and the Cowboys’ aerial attack got the better of the Eagles ground-based offense in a 22-16 thriller.
“[The win] was really important to me personally because they beat up on us in basketball and they knocked us out of the playoffs in baseball,” Chimacum senior quarterback Henry Brebberman said. “We talked about trust all week in the locker room and I just trusted my receivers and trusted my defense to go out there and make plays.”
Klahowya drove down to the Cowboys’ 4-yard line with less than four minutes to play in the contest, but were moved back by a 15-yard penalty and Chimacum took advantage, with Jacob Williamson stuffing Eagles running back Hunter Wallis a yard short to force the team’s fourth turnover on downs of the game.
After a Cowboys punt, Klahowya took over near midfield but were pushed back by a recovered fumble and a big sack by sophomore Robbie Collier. A third-down pass was batted away by the Chimacum secondary and Klahowya’s last shot — a rollout pass along the sideline by sophomore quarterback Nick Lewis was swatted away by Carson McConnell to preserve the victory.
“Our D-line did amazing — Jacob Williamson, Chris Fair, Robbie [Collier] — I don’t even know his last name, but he did a great job,” Brebberman said.
“Our defensive backs did a really good job of staying in coverage and not biting on the little fake runs they were doing in the second half.”
The Cowboys made huge plays in the passing game all night as Brebberman completed 16 of 25 passes for 325 yards, three TDs and one interception.
“He was great,” Chimacum coach Chris Storm said. “He’s a great kid and we are lucky to have him, that’s for sure.”
Brebberman’s receivers Carson McConnell, Bjorn Danaan-Devas and Clayton Smith all came up clutch on various drives throughout the contest.
With Chimacum cooped up inside its own 10-yard line early, McConnell got the ball rolling — catching the ball on a go route up the sideline at about the Cowboys’ 35-yard line and motoring the rest of the way for a 93-yard scoring strike in the first quarter.
Chimacum had trouble slowing Wallis down all game and he capped two first-half drives with touchdown runs of 20 and 54 yards as the Eagles went up 13-8 on the Cowboys.
Wallis had 160 rushing yards on 11 carries in the first half, but Chimacum limited him to 80 yards after halftime — not allowing the explosive plays that had hurt the team in early-season losses.
And Chimacum didn’t panic offensively. Danaan/Devas had three grabs of 44, 26 and a 9-yard TD reception on one drive late in the second quarter to put the Cowboys up 14-13 at the break.
Klahowya momentarily took a 16-13 lead on a 38-yard field goal by freshman Michael Divano with 7:38 to play in the third quarter — but Chimacum’s passing attack had the answer with Smith taking his turn in the spotlight.
Smith outleaped an Eagles defender for a 37-yard gain along the home sideline to keep a Cowboys drive alive and capped the drive with a 9-yard TD reception followed by a two-point conversion catch to put Chimacum ahead for good with 6:22 left in the third quarter.
“I can’t say enough good things about Bjorn and Clayton and Carson — they all had great games,” Brebberman said. “Even Cade [Martin], he was running really good routes and he was open a couple of times — I just missed him. All our receivers stepped up and played really well.”
Storm said the game was the first that he had his full roster at his disposal — or nearly full.
“We kind of learned our lesson last year about getting guys hurt during nonleague games,” Storm said. “We wanted to come out strong for league play.”
Storm said he’s been seeing the needed level of commitment from his team in recent weeks.
For us, that’s been our biggest battle,” Storm said. We have a lot of young kids and they are really starting to buy in more as a team.”
Chimacum 22, Klahowya 16
Klahowya 7 6 3 0 — 16
Chimacum 8 6 8 0 — 22
First Quarter
C — McConnell 93 pass from Brebberman (Brebberman run)
K — Wallis 20 run (Divano kick)
Second Quarter
K — Wallis 34 run (kick blocked)
C — Danaan/Devas 9 pass from Brebberman (two-point failed)
Third Quarter
K — Divano 38 field goal
C — Smith 9 pass from Brebberman (Smith pass from Brebberman)
Individual Stats
Rushing—K: H. Wallis 24-240; Lewis 22-98; #28 (not listed on roster) 2-5; Garvey 1-1; L. Wallis 2-(-4). C: Caldwell 2-12, McConnell 3-6, Jones 6-(-5), Brebberman 6-(-5).
Passing—K: Lewis 2-9-25; Clarke 1-4-14. C: Brebberman 16-25-25-325, 3TD, INT.
Receiving—K: #28 3-25; Lewis 1-14. C: Smith 6-123; McConnell 1-93; Danaan/Devas 3-79 Jones 6-30.
Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News Chimacum’s Bjorn Danaan-Devas protects the ball after a 20 yard pass receptioon and avoids a tackle by Klahowya Eagle Michael Divano during a Friday night game at Memorial Field in Port Townsend.
