BREMERTON — The Silverdale Stadium lights dimming as Sequim Wolves football players and coaches paid their last respects to one another in the wake of a season-ending 59-42 district playoff loss to Eatonville was an apt metaphor.
As long-ago Monday Night Football announcer Don Meredith would croon late in games: “Turn out the lights, the party’s over.”
But Saturday night’s defeat was still an impressive way to go out for this group of Wolves.
Sequim parried back and forth with the South Puget Sound League’s Cruisers, the lead exchanging eight times in a game that totaled 101 points and just under 1,000 yards of total offense combined.
Head coach Erik Wiker was effusive in his praise for his team during their post-game meeting.
“You battled a high-scoring, great team,” Wiker said. “And you battled them all game. We had adversity from the first play. Once this sadness wears off I want you to remember this was one of the best seasons in school history. One of the top 10 or 11 teams in the 100-plus years of Sequim football. You have to remember that in the end when the hurt wears off.”
It was anybody’s game through the first three periods.
A three-touchdown third quarter for the Wolves saw Sequim rally from a 30-21 halftime deficit to take leads of 35-30 on an 18-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Riley Cowan to classmate Kyler Rollness halfway through the period and 42-38 on a 25-yard Cowan to Gavin Velarde connection with 1:14 to go in the quarter.
But the Wolves allowed a 29-yard scoring strike from Eatonville quarterback Triston Graf to Ryan Antonson with 22 seconds left and the Cruisers took a 45-42 lead into the final frame.
A rough stretch of three turnovers in four offensive plays doomed Sequim in the decisive fourth quarter.
The Wolves looked set to put together another touchdown-answering drive as Cowan found Rollness on a crossing route to midfield for 20 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter, but Rollness was stripped as he was tackled and Eatonville recovered.
Four plays later, the Cruisers were back in the end zone courtesy of a 29-yard wheel route pass from Graf to Ray Springer. It was a late-developing play, as Springer snuck out of the backfield, caught the ball on the right sideline and crisscrossed the width of the field to dive in over the left pylon for a 52-42 edge with 10:10 to go.
“We gave up too many broken plays,” Sequim senior middle linebacker and offensive lineman James Thayer said.
“They have weapons, sure, but we had chances to get after him [Graf] and we gave him too much time.”
Graf showed a Russell Wilson-like ability to improvise on those broken plays all game, eventually connecting on 28 of 39 attempts for 417 yards, four TDs and an interception. He also led his team in rushing with 68 yards on 11 carries.
He was helped by an injury to Sequim defensive back Payton Glasser on the first play of the game, leaving an already thin Wolves’ secondary stretched even further.
Cowan was intercepted by Antonson on the Wolves’ next possession when he tried to force a short pass to Velarde along the sideline at the Sequim 43.
Eatonville fought through eight penalties on its next drive, moving all the way back to its own 32-yard line before putting together a TD drive over 5:23 capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by Derek Brown to put the Cruisers up 59-42 with 4:27 to go.
Cowan was picked off again on the Wolves’ next play and Eatonville ran out the last 4:09 of the game. The Cruisers (8-2) will face CWAC-champion Ellensburg in the first round of the Class 2A state tournament next weekend.
Sequim held a 14-8 lead after one quarter thanks to two touchdowns from playmaker Gavin Velarde. Velarde caught a Cowan slant route near the line of scrimmage and busted right-to-left for 36 yards for the Wolves’ first score.
Later in the quarter with Eatonville inside the Wolves’ red zone, Velarde picked off an overthrown pass from Graf at the goal line and motored 99 yards up the left sideline for another touchdown.
Velarde later added a third touchdown, scoring on a 25-yard pass from Cowan in the third quarter. Velarde finished with five catches for 100 yards and three rushes for 28 yards.
Cowan finished 12 of 24 for 192 yards, four TDs and the two interceptions.
Tyler Conn also had a good night for Sequim, rushing for 127 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
Thayer reflected on what became his goal as a Wolves’ football player: to leave the program in better shape as a senior than he inherited it as a freshman.
“I didn’t think about that as a freshman because you just don’t know how fast this will fly by,” he said.
“But I started for this team for all four seasons. And some of those years we had the talent but it just didn’t click. And this year it did, and that’s why it hurts right now. We were putting it together.”
Eatonville 59, Sequim 42
Eatonville 8 22 15 14— 59
Sequim 14 7 21 0— 42
First Quarter
E — Brandt 8 pass from Graf (Moeller run)
Seq — Velarde 36 pass from Cowan (Cowan kick)
Seq — Velarde 99 interception return (Cowan kick)
Second Quarter
E — Brown 1 run (Brown pass from Morton)
Seq — Bell 22 pass from Riley Cowan (Cowan kick)
E — Scruggs 38 run (Morton kick)
E — Moeller 11 pass from Graf (Morton kick)
Third Quarter
Seq — Conn 8 run (Conn run)
Seq — Rollness 18 pass from Cowan (run failed)
E — Brown 1 run (Graf run)
Seq —Velarde 25 pass from Cowan (Cowan kick)
E — Antonson 29 pass from Graf (Morton kick)
Fourth Quarter
E — Springer 29 pass from Graf (Morton kick)
E —Brown 4 yd run (Morton kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: E — Graf 11-68, Bridges 11-44, Brown 17-43, Scruggs 2-47; S —Conn 20-127, Velarde 3-28, Cowan 5-4
Passing: E — Graf 29-38-1, 417. 4TDs; S — Cowan 12-24-2, 192. 4TDs.
Receiving: E — Springer 10-119, Moeller 6-102, Scruggs 4-92, Brandt 6-61, Antonson 3-43; S —Velarde 5-100, Rollness 4-58, Bell 2-26, Gorr 1-8.
