By Michael Carman and Pierre LaBossiere
Peninsula Daily News
VASHON — Forks obliterated Vashon in every facet of Friday’s football game in a 68-0 victory over the Pirates.
The Spartans never punted or even faced a fourth down offensively, and the defense dominated in the nonleague win.
“Our play-action passing was working, everything was working,” head coach Emil West said.
“I told the kids we would be so well-prepared, it didn’t matter what we called because we would be able to execute and it seemed like whatever play I called they did that.
“A score like 68-0 you see that and it looks bad, but our starters on offense didn’t play after the first series of the second half.”
Cole Baysinger racked up 230 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground and caught another scoring strike from junior quarterback Gabe Reaume.
Reaume also found Brett Moody who dove to haul in a 45-yard TD.
“[Gabe’s] a captain, a leader, he’s not the biggest so he has to battle,” West said.
Reaume dislocated his non-throwing shoulder last season and the injury had an impact on his ability to throw the ball.
“This year’s a complete different story, he’s starting to find his zone. He’s got his arm strength back, starting to see the field better,” West said.
“And we know to beat higher-caliber teams, to go deep in the playoffs, we have to throw the ball otherwise we become one dimensional and opponents will stack the box.”
Tristen Pisani rambled for 160 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He also returned an interception for a touchdown for Forks.
Shane Queen led the Spartans defense with four sacks. “The defensive line was dominant as a whole,” West said. “We didn’t have to blitz much at all, we rushed our front four most of the time and got great push and Vashon is a spread offense, so that helps our secondary to have more defenders in pass coverage.
“It’s all relative, we were all working together. The d-line putting pressure on the QB, secondary was tight in coverage, we can credit them for a bunch of coverage sacks.”
West said backup quarterback Josh Salazar overcame a couple of fumbled snaps to throw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Josh Flores in his first varsity passing attempt.
Forks travels to King’s Way Christian on Friday. The Spartans fell 42-28 at home to the Knights in 2016.
Mount Tahoma 44, Port Angeles 0
TACOMA — Port Angeles’ defense was able to clamp down in the second half, but were overwhelmed in the first half by Mount Tahoma’s speed in a 44-0 season-opening loss on road.
The Roughriders gave up just three points in the second half after giving up 41 in the first to 3A Mount Tahoma on Friday.
“They had some pretty good speed. It was something we weren’t able to deal with. They ran the zone read really well. On defense, we have some things we need to work on,” said coach Brett Curtis. “We did see our defense play better in the second half.”
On defense, Tyler Bowen had an interception and a 50-yard return against the Thunderbirds.
On offense, Curtis said, “we did some good things. I was happy with our passing game. That was a bright spot.”
Chris Guttormsen started at quarterback for the Riders. Garrett Edwards had three catches for the Riders, including a long completion that likely would have been a touchdown, but it was called back due to a penalty well behind the play.
Easton Joslin and Bowen also had receptions for the Riders.
Curtis said he was also happy with the special teams. Trevor Shumway had a couple of nice returns and had more than 50 yards in return yardage, he said.
The Riders (0-1) play again Friday against North Olympic Peninsula rival Port Townsend at 7 p.m. at Civic Field.
