DARRINGTON — The Crescent football team was the top Logger of the day on Saturday, coming on top 34-30 of a wild see-saw affair with the Darrington Loggers.
Almost all of the scoring came in the first half with a total of six lead changes for the game.
“The first half was all offense. The second half was all defense,” said Crescent coach Brian Shimko.
Shimko said his team is young this year and it’s been a struggle teaching the players to stay focused, but this game, the players put it together.
“This game they really put their cards on the table. They played really well. This was definitely a step in the right direction,” Shimko said.
Shimko said Darrington is also much better than in past years. Darrington started off the season 5-0 but has since lost three straight to Neah Bay, Quilcene and now Crescent.
Shimko said there were three other games this season Crescent could have won if the team had played as well as it played against Darrington.
It was a tale of two different styles in the first half, with Crescent scoring on long, sustained drives and Darrington scoring on big plays.
Crescent scored first on a 1-yard run by Conner Ferro-May, capping a 12-play drive. Darrington responded with a 69-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Ashin Whittaker, making the score 8-8.
Crescent responded right back with a 13-play drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Ferro-May to make it 14-8. Whittaker came back with a 42-yard run to give Darrington a 16-14 lead.
Crescent put together yet another long drive, this one for 13 plays, and it again was capped by a Ferro-May run for seven yards to make it 20-16.
Darrington scored on a 35-yard play and made the point after to make the score 24-20. Crescent finally had a quick drive, getting the ball with 1:02 left in the half. Crescent ran a three-play drive that ended with a 25-yard pass from Henry Bourm to Lukas Love to take a 26-24 lead into the halftime break. There were a total of seven touchdowns in the first half.
In the second half, the defenses buckled down, not allowing any points after the crazy first half. In the fourth, Darrington’s Whittaker scored again to take a 30-26 lead.
Shimko said Crescent held the ball nearly the rest of the game after Darrington’s final score. After a Crescent drive, Bourm hit Love with a 7-yard touchdown pass and then hit Conner Bauers with a point-after throw to give Crescent a 34-30 lead.
The Crescent defense held Darrington, forcing a turnover on downs. Crescent was then able to get a couple of first downs to run out the clock.
Ferro-May was the workhorse for Crescent, running the ball 30 times for 137 yards. Bourm also had a huge day, completing 13-of-17 passes for 210 yards. Bauers had eight catches for 136 yards, while Love had four catches for 53 yards and two touchdowns.
On defense, Tommy Leonard had two sacks and 17 tackles. Josh Berson added 11 tackles.
Crescent (2-2, 3-5) next hosts Quilcene (3-1, 4-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Crescent 34, Darrington 30
Crescent 14 12 0 8 — 34
Darrington 8 16 0 6 — 30
First Quarter
Crescent — Ferro-May 1 run (Bourm run)
Darrington — Whittaker 69 kick return (PAT good)
Crescent — Ferro-May 3 run (PAT no good)
Second Quarter
Darrington — Whittaker 42 run (PAT good)
Crescent — Ferro-May 7 run (PAT no good)
Darrington — Green 35 run (PAT good)
Crescent — Love 25 pass from Bourm (PAT no good)
Fourth Quarter
Darrington — Whittaker 5 run (PAT no good)
Crescent — Love 7 pass from Bourm (Bauers pass from Bourm)
Other games from Friday night:
Port Angeles 28, Kingston 7
Port Angeles got a 70-yard punt return from Jason Hawes at the end of the first half for a score in a 28-7 win over Kingston and the Roughriders’ defense did much of the rest.
Neah Bay 38, Quilcene 0
No. 2-ranked Neah Bay shut out Quilcene and got 262 yards rushing from Jodelle Wimberley and Julian Carrick to go to 7-0 on the year.
East Jefferson 18, Klahowya 13
East Jefferson intercepted four Klahowya passes en route to a victory to give the Rivals a 3-1 record in the Nisqually League.
North Kitsap 54, Sequim 6
Sequim lost to the No. 6-ranked 2A team in the state on the road.
Forks forfeit
Forks forfeited its game against Pe Ell-Willapa Valley over an undisclosed Oct. 8 football team-related incident.
For more details on Friday night’s games, go to www.peninsuladailynews.com.
