JOYCE — A speedy and talented Crescent football team held off the feisty and up-and-coming Clallam Bay Bruins in 1B 8-man action Saturday.
The Loggers came from 20 behind in the first half to beat the Bruins 36-20 in the first Northwest League game of the year for both teams.
Derek Findley had an MVP kind of day with a hand in four of Crescent’s five touchdowns, including two runs (one for 76 yards), a pick-six and a pass reception.
“I thought we handled Crescent’s speed pretty well except for Findley,” Clallam Bay coach Cal Ritter said.
Crescent remains perfect on the year at 4-0 overall and 1-0 in league while Clallam Bay fell to 0-1 and 2-2 overall.
“Give Clallam Bay credit,” Crescent coach Darrell Yount said.
“That is a good football team. They ran the ball hard with a good scheme. They defended so well against us all game long. Absolutely took away our power sweep.
“But we were able to get some stops when we needed them to limit the damage until our offense could get clicking with our off-tackle game.”
It certainly was a game of two halves.
Clallam Bay came out playing inspired football. Crescent opened the game with a successful onside kick, but that would be the lone highlight for the next 20 minutes for the Loggers as the Bruins played tough defense to immediately get the ball back on downs.
Clallam Bay was able to punch the first touchdown of the game in with 18 seconds left in the first quarter to lead 6-0 after one.
Quarterback Austin Ritter, coach Cal Ritter’s nephew, hit Ryan Willis with an 19-yard pass to put the Bruins on the board. The two-point pass failed.
The second quarter was more Clallam Bay run offense and smash-mouth run defense as the Bruins moved the ball up and down the field but were limited to only one offensive touchdown by the “bend but don’t break” Crescent defense.
Matt Mohr’s 15 pass from Austin Ritter gave the Bruins a 12-0 lead after the two-point pass failed.
Mohr, a junior, had a standout day with 231 rushing yards on 25 carries.
The linebacker also had a team-high 17 tackles on defense.
“I can’t say enough about Matt,” Cal Ritter said.
“The kid brings it every game. He’s a great kid and a heck of a football player.”
Clallam Bay’s final score came on an outstanding defensive play by Willis.
Crescent quarterback Beau Bamer was stripped of the football, with Willis rumbling 63 yards with the fumble recovery for a commanding 20-0 Bruins lead with only 2:51 left in the half.
But the Loggers came back to rip off a quick score as Bamer returned the kickoff 22 yards, and then Findley went to work, snaring a 32-yard pass from Bamer and then taking the 6-yard scoring strike from Bamer off a defender’s helmet to put Crescent on the board with only 29 seconds remaining in the half.
The second half was a different story.
“We just ran out of gas in the second half,” Cal Ritter said.
At halftime, Yount said he challenged his team in the locker room to return to defensive basics, to secure the edges, to rally to the ball and to finish plays.
After stalling on their first possession, throwing incomplete into the end zone and turning the ball over on downs on the 15, the Crescent defense literally took over the game.
Putting a halt to the Bruins’ running game, Crescent’s high-powered offense took the field and proceeded to rip off 30 points in a little over one quarter.
Findley put the team on his back to do the bulk of the damage, scoring two touchdowns in 6 seconds.
He first ripped off a 40-yard scoring run, and then followed his own squib kick that settled on the Bruin 12-yard line, stormed in from his defensive end position on Clallam Bay’s first play and batted a pass up in the air to himself, secured the ball and ran 12 yards for the touchdown.
Eric Larson crashed in for the conversion and suddenly it was all knotted up at 20 at the end of three.
Three minutes later Crescent would strike again.
On the first play from scrimmage following a Bruins’ punt, Findley took a handoff, sprinted to the corner, and raced 76 yards down the Crescent sideline to paydirt, breaking three tackles along the way.
With Larson again sprinting in on the two-point conversion, it was Crescent 28-20 with 10:58 to go in the fourth.
And the Loggers weren’t done yet. They would strike again just 1:43 later as Findley returned an interception 30 yards to put Crescent in business from the Clallam Bay 11.
It only took big Mike Zapien one play as he pounded in untouched, then added the two-point conversion on the identical play to put his team up 38-20.
Crescent would come up with two more big defensive stops to run off the remainder of the clock for a convincing win.
“Just a great effort by our kids, especially in the second half,” Yount said.
“Derek Findley had himself a game that he won’t soon forget. He absolutely took over the second half.
“He rushes for 183, he receives for 131, he puts the Bruins’ back to the wall all day long with great squib kickoffs, he gets the batted ball interception for a TD and almost takes another pick to the house to set us up for another score.
“He totals 353 yards of total offense all by himself and adds the 30-yard interception return. That’s almost 400 yards from him.
“What a great athlete, who just kind of made up his mind that he wasn’t going to lose this game on this day.”
On defense, Crescent’s Gene Peppard had a game-high 19 tackles while Zapien added 14.
For Clallam Bay, Kelly Gregory, a linebacker, followed Mohr’s 17 tackles with 14.
Calvin Ritter, the coach’s son, played nose tackle for the first time, and shared the position with Joe Manville.
“They both played spectacular for us,” Cal Ritter said.
Now Crescent will try to keep its unbeaten record intact at home against the powerhouse No. 3 Lummi Blackhawks on Saturday.
The Blackhawks won’t be in a good mood after losing 48-28 to Neah Bay last Friday night.
The Bruins, meanwhile, will be on the second leg of three straight road games.
They will travel to Lopez Island this week, and then the next week they go to Bellingham to face the Blackhawks.
Crescent 36, Clallam Bay 20
Clallam Bay 6 14 0 0— 20
Crescent 0 6 14 16— 36
First Quarter
CB—Ryan Willis 19 pass from Austin Ritter (pass failed)
Second Quarter
CB—Matt Mohr 15 pass from Austin Ritter (pass failed)
CB—Willis 63 fumble recovery return (Austin Ritter run)
C—Derek Findley 6 pass from Beau Bamer (run failed)
Third Quarter
C—Findley 40 run (run failed)
C—Findley 12 interception return (Eric Larson run)
Fourth Quarter
C—Findley 76 run (Larson run)
C—Zapien 11 run (Zapien run)
Individual Stats
Rushing— CB: Matt Mohr 25-231, Casey Randall 7-75, Austin Ritter 7-26, Jeremy Rock 12-27. C: Derek Findley 14-183, Eric Larson 11-50, Mike Zapien 10-30, Beau Bamer 13-20.
Passing—CB: Austin Ritter 2-8-2, 35 yards. C: Beau Bamer 8-16-1, 140 yards.
Receiving—CB: Ryan Willis 1-18, Matt Mohr 1-17. C: Derek Findley 8-131, Eric Baker 1-9.
Quilcene 48, Rainier Christ. 30
QUILCENE — The Rangers took a 40-12 halftime lead to cruise to their first Northwest League victory of the year as they improved to 2-3 overall.
“We played a great game,” coach Nic Dahl said.
Rainier Christian fell to 0-5 and 0-1.
Eddie Perez and Josh King had two touchdown runs each to spark the Rangers.
Perez led everybody with 188 yards on 14 carries while King wasn’t far behind with 149 yards on 14 carries.
Josh Uvila, playing his final game for Quilcene before moving to Arizona this week, scored on a 3-yard run after King rushed for 12 yards the play before and ran out of bounds despite no defenders around him.
“King wanted Uvila to score a touchdown in his final game,” Dahl explained. “So King ran the ball to the 3-yard line, and then let Uvila score the touchdown on the next play.
“That is unselfish stuff.”
Uvila ended up with 16 yards on five carries.
Tyson Svetich led the team on defense with 13 tackles while King added seven tackles.
J.J. Smith earned six tackles and had an interception while Brandon Collins had six tackles and a fumble recovery.
Perez rounded out his standout game with two interceptions.
Quilcene 48, Rainier Chris. 30
Rainier 6 6 0 18— 30
Quilcene 16 24 0 8— 48
First Quarter
(Quilcene scoring only)
Q—Josh King 3 run (King run)
Q—King 43 run (Eddie Perez run)
Second Quarter
Q—Lucas Murphy 15 run (King run)
Q—Perez 58 run (King run)
Q—Perez 45 run (Murphy run)
Fourth Quarter
Q—Josh Uvila 3 run (King run)
Individual Stats
Rushing— Q: Eddie Perez 14-188, Josh King 14-149, Lucas Murphy 2-14, Josh Uvila 5-16, Triston Williams 9-20.
Passing—Q: Triston Williams 2-9-0, 65 yards.
Receiving—Q: Lucas Murhy 1-42, J.J. Smith 1-23.
Chimacum 28,
Life Christian 13
TACOMA — The Cowboys improved to 1-1 in the Nisqually League and 2-3 overall with Saturday’s victory.
Chimacum had four touchdown runs from four different players and led 14-0 at halftime to cruise.
Scoring touchdowns for the Cowboys were Colton Shaw, Derek Ajax, Alex Morris and Mel Thornton.
Thornton, who led the team with 146 yards on the ground on 23 carries, had the longest scoring run at 13 yards.
The Cowboys churned up 299 rushing yards with Ajax getting 83 yards on 18 carries and Shaw following up with 65 yards on 12 attempts.
Thornton and Trevon Noel led the team on defense with nine tackles each while Ajax added seven.
Noel was a terror for the opposing quarterback as he earned four sacks and had a tackle for a loss.
Noel also recovered two fumbles while Thornton caused one.
Cross Country
PA at Nike meet
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Roughriders performed well at the Nike Pre-Nationals, held at the Portland Meadow Race Track on Saturday.
Elizabeth Stevenson of Port Angeles had the top performance for the area team as she captured 13th place in the 5,000-meter Division 2 varsity race in 20 minutes, 46.73 seconds.
Annika Pederson took 45th in 21:50.03 while Willow Suess was 66th, Bailey Reader 79th and Lily Morlan 89th.
Kyle Tupper, the Port Angeles ace, took 72nd place in the Danner Championship boys varsity division in a team-best time of 16:47.95.
Brendan Dennis had the top boys Division 2 varsity performance as he claimed 58th place in 17:54.65.
He was followed by Peter Butler, 75th; Simon Shinder, 102nd; Tony Dalgardno, 118th; and Evan Herbert, 128th.
Meanwhile, Hunter Dempsey took 62nd place for the Riders in the Freshman Junior Varsity race.