By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
BREMERTON — Quilcene showed no signs of rust after a lengthy layoff, putting up 38 first-quarter points in a 62-24 Class 1B Quad-District thumping of Darrington on Friday at Silverdale Stadium to advance to the eight-team state tournament.
The Rangers (10-0) hadn’t played since beating Evergreen Lutheran 74-6 on Oct. 27. And Quilcene had a two-week layoff before that game thanks to a forfeit by Muckleshoot.
“It sounds stupid, but I am a bit of a worrier,” Rangers coach Trey Beathard said. “I never know how we are going to do for sure, but we practiced really well this week and the kids have shown a little more intensity, a little more concentration and that has not always been the case.
“It’s up to the kids. I tell them I want to coach football, not effort and they have been bringing the effort lately.”
Quilcene brought that effort from the opening kickoff, scoring on their first seven possessions of the game — including five consecutive 1-play scoring “drives” at one stretch to go up 54-0.
“We are blessed to have some kids that are explosive players and because of that when we execute we can do a really nice job,” Beathard said.
The Rangers balanced the run and the pass effectively offensively on those possessions. Reynolds totaled three rushing touchdowns, Ben Bruner took a backward pass 61 yards for a score and later raced in untouched from 35 yards out and quarterback Holdem Elkins found Robert Comstock for three catches for 82 yards, including a 36-yard TD in that dominant first half.
Bruner totaled 3 runs for 106 yards and Reynolds ran six times for 93 yards on the game.
Elkins connected with Bruner for a 15-yard TD pass in the second half to finish a perfect 5 of 5 for 97 yards and two scores.
“Having an amazing line like we do helps,” Reynolds said. “I thought all of our linemen could have been all-league. It makes it all easier on our QB, who also got all-league, to throw to our big wide receivers.”
Defensively, Quilcene forced three fumbles and limited any explosive plays by Darrington (3-8).
“Some of that is we are trying to take away the big play, they ran a lot of misdirection, they ran outside a lot on film,” Beathard said. “Tonight when they were warming up we saw their linemen had wide splits, so I expected them to try and run up the middle.
“You don’t lose because they gain 4 or 5 yards up the middle, you lose when you give up the big play typically, so we want to stop that.”
The Rangers will be making their first state appearance since losing to Lummi in the 2015 quarterfinals.
Quilcene will find out their state opponent sometime this morning after the WIAA’s Class 1B/2B Seeding committee ranks the eight-team field.
Beathard is not sure what to expect, but said Quilcene did what it could to bolster its schedule this season by replacing Oakville with a road game at Neah Bay.
“I don’t have the slightest idea,” Beathard said. “It depends on if the ranked teams were winning. We will see what happens, all I know is we will play a really, really good team next week.”
Quilcene 62, Darrington 24
Darrington 0 8 0 16— 24
Quilcene 38 16 8 0— 62
First Quarter
Q—Reynolds 4 run (Reynolds run)
Q—Reynolds 1 run (Comstock pass from Elkins)
Q—Bruner 61 run (Comstock pass from Elkins)
Q—Bruner 35 run (Budnek pass from Elkins)
Q—Reynolds 35 run (pass failed)
Second Quarter
Q—Comstock 36 pass from Elkins (Reynolds run)
Q—Elkins 29 run (Smead run)
D—Reuwsaat 20 run (Reuwsaat run)
Third Quarter
Q—Bruner 15 pass from Elkins (Comstock pass from Elkins)
Fourth Quarter
D—Reuwsaat 35 run (Reuwsaat run)
D—Whittaker 60 fumble return (Reuwsaat run)
Individual Stats
Rushing—D: Reuwsaat 28-203; Zinnato 8-1; Whittaker 1-(-3); Requa 2-(-7). Q: Bruner 3-106, Reynolds 6-93, Elkins 1-29, Smead 3-28, Dugdale 2-16, Kieffer 1-7; Miller 3-(-9).
Passing—D: Reuwsaat 1-1-3; Zinnato 1-2-11. Q: Elkins 5-5-97, 2 TDs.
Receiving—D: Requa 1-11, Zinnato 1-3. Q: Comstock 3-82, Bruner 1-15, Reynolds 1-0.
