NEAH BAY — Just like that.
After its lead was cut to 14-6 right before halftime, Neah Bay went on a big-play tear to put Lummi away 62-12 in Northwest Football League action Friday night.
Lummi quarterback Jonathan Casimir found James Williams on fourth-and-21 for a 23-yard touchdown with 27 seconds left in the first half.
But less than three minutes of game time later, the Red Devils’ lead had grown to 36-6.
Tommy Tyler recovered an onside kick to give Neah Bay nice field position following Casimir’s touchdown pass.
Two plays went nowhere, and a 15-yard personal foul penalty pushed the Red Devils back to the Lummi 36-yard line.
With time ticking down, Cameron Buzzell had an idea.
“In practice, we tried the slant and go,” Buzzell said.
“[Head coach] Tony [McCaulley] was thinking about a play, and I said, ‘Why not the slant and go?’ And he was like, ‘OK, let’s do that.’”
The play couldn’t have worked better for the Red Devils.
Buzzell got a step on his defender, hauled in Rwehabura Munyagi Jr.’s pass over the top and dashed the rest of the distance to the end zone for a 64-yard touchdown with 10 seconds left in the half.
“They were playing zone, so it was pretty easy; I could just run straight through them and just outrun them,” Buzzell said.
Instead of 14-6, the Red Devils were up 22-6 at halftime.
To open the second half, the Blackhawks made the mistake of kicking it to Cole Svec, and Svec capitalized by returning the kick 83 yards to the house.
With a heavy dose of passes by Casimir, Lummi moved the ball down inside the red zone, but Svec picked off Casimir at the 11-yard line.
Two plays later, Munyagi again went over the top of the defense to Buzzell, who reeled in the ball and took it to the end zone for an 88-yard touchdown.
Just like that, the Red Devils led 36-6 with 9:42 left in the third quarter.
“We opened it up a little bit with our passing game,” McCaulley said.
“I wanted to be a little more balanced this year, and I wanted to be a little more balanced tonight, and we got into that in the first half even.
“Rweha’s throwing the ball well, Cam and Kenrick both have got good hands, Cam’s got the good speed, so that kind of opened up a little bit for us.”
The two long pass plays took some pressure off Neah Bay’s run game, and before the end of the quarter, Svec added touchdown runs of 46 and 80 yards.
The 46-yarder came on the second play of that particular drive, and the 80-yard was on the first play of that drive.
Svec, the reigning Class 1B state player of the year, finished with 254 yards on 16 carries. He scored five touchdowns in the game — four rushing and the kickoff return. He also had two 50-yard touchdown runs in the first half negated because of holding calls.
Lummi scored another touchdown near the start of the fourth quarter on a 20-yard pass from Casimir to John Ballew.
Svec sat for the fourth quarter, but Michael McGee continued the quick-strike scoring, taking a handoff on the first play of a drive at going 44 yards for a touchdown that made it 54-12.
Munyagi added a 20-yard run to cap the scoring
The sophomore quarterback finished with 197 yards and two scores on 4 of 9 passing. He also gained 48 yards on nine carries.
Buzzell caught all four passes for 197 yards.
“I think our depth just wore them down, and our physicality was good in the second half,” McCaulley said.
“I thought we played way better in the second half. I thought maybe kids took them for granted a little bit, and I told them not to; [Lummi’s Jim Sandusky is] an extremely good coach, they were prepared.
“I’m little bit nervous about playing them in the [state] semis, because I think that we’ll see them again, and they’re going to be tough.”
Casimir completed 26 of 48 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns for Lummi (2-1, 4-2).
The win was Neah Bay’s 31st in a row and ninth straight over Lummi.
The Red Devils (2-0, 5-0) play at Crescent this Saturday.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
