KELLEN LANDRY’S GAME-WINNING catch created mayhem at Civic Field, with Port Angeles students and fans joining the team on the field to celebrate the Roughriders’ 20-14 overtime win over archrival Sequim last Friday, but it also might end up making a mess of the Olympic League postseason race.
Sequim and Port Angeles now have identical 2-2 league records with two games to play.
North Mason is a half-game behind the Wolves and Riders at 2-3 with only one league game left, on the road against last-place Bremerton (0-4) this week.
If Port Angeles and Sequim win out then they will secure two of the league’s four berths to the district playoffs.
Easier said that done, though.
The Riders host seventh-ranked North Kitsap, which hasn’t lost a league game the past two seasons and hasn’t yet been tested this year, on Friday at Civic Field.
A loss doesn’t eliminate them from postseason contention, though.
If they can beat Kingston (1-4) in the regular season finale, and assuming North Mason beats Bremerton, then the Riders and Bulldogs will be tied.
Hold that thought for a minute.
Sequim, meanwhile, faces second-place Olympic (4-0) at Silverdale Stadium this week.
The Wolves should give the Trojans all they can handle, and if Sequim wins, they still have a shot at second place in the league because Olympic finishes the regular season on the road against North Kitsap.
However, if the Wolves lose Friday and beat Bremerton — again, winless — at home on Halloween, the they could join Port Angeles and North Mason in a three-way tie for the last two playoff spots.
That is where it would get messy.
Sequim beat North Mason, North Mason beat Port Angeles and Port Angeles beat Sequim, so head-to-head results don’t break a tie.
Furthermore, all three teams’ other two league losses would be to the same two teams.
Sequim athletic director Dave Ditlefsen said Monday that the Olympic League hasn’t yet discussed how a three-way tie would be broken.
The league doesn’t eliminate teams from the postseason in any sport based on on-paper criteria, and football is no different.
So Ditlefsen speculated that there could be some sort of mini-playoff for the two postseason berths.
That was purely his speculation, and his speculation pretty much ended there.
It could be some sort of playoff where two teams play one half. The winner of that half advances to the postseason and the loser plays the second half against the third team, with the winner of that half advancing to districts.
You again?
In the Olympic League’s 1A Division, Port Townsend (4-1) can clinch the league title with a win over rival Chimacum (0-5) on Friday night at Memorial Field.
If that happens, the Redhawks will play the Nisqually League’s No. 2 team, which is likely to be Charles Wright Academy, in the district playoffs Nov. 7 or 8.
That would be a week after the Redhawks host Charles Wright to close out the regular season on Halloween.
Port Townsend will have played Chimacum, Klahowya and Port Townsend twice this season, so why not play two against the Tarriers as well?
In Class 1B, top-ranked Neah Bay locks up the Northwest Football League championship with wins over Crescent this week and Clallam Bay next week.
That would give the undefeated Red Devils an automatic berth to the state playoffs and a bye the week of the Quad-District playoffs.
Quilcene (2-1) can secure second place in the SeaTac League and a Quad-District berth with a win over Seattle Lutheran (0-2) on Saturday.
Missing the catch
Not everybody at Civic Field last Friday night saw Landry bobble then catch Ryan Rodocker’s 25-yard pass in the end zone to give Port Angeles its second consecutive Rainshadow Rumble win over Sequim.
“From where I was, it looked like Kellen had dropped it — just the angle I had — so I kind of put my head down and I heard everyone just lose it,” Roughriders running back Nathan Angevine said.
The Port Angeles lineman Roberto Coronel also had to wait to see the catch — The Catch? — on film.
“Just block and pray, that’s all I do,” Coronel said after the game.
Big-play Kellen
Friday’s big catch wasn’t Landry’s first big catch of the season.
The junior Z-back also caught Angevine’s heave against Bremerton when Angevine, a who began the season as Port Angeles’ starting quarterback, caught a snap that went over Rodocker’s head and then ran the play as it was called.
Just like Friday’s catch, Landry hauled in that one in the end zone, too, this time with about three minutes left.
“He’s really come along as a receiver for us and he’s really making some great catches for us in some games — big, big plays,” Port Angeles coach Tom Wahl said Friday.
Landry also has been coming on more and more as a runner for the Riders.
Against Sequim, he ran nine times for 70 yards, including a 39-yarder when Port Angeles was inside its own 10-yard line.
“He’s running those counter-action plays from the Z-back and he just, he’s a hard runner,” Wahl said. “He’s probably one of our, if not the hardest runner we’ve got.
“He’s big, too, for a Z-back; at 200 pounds, he’s hard to bring down. And he’s running with determination, which is really exciting.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
