PORT ANGELES — In the team’s first year of existence, the Port Angeles girls flag football squad has made it all the way to the state semifinals.
The Roughriders qualified for the eight-team state playoffs by finishing third at district last week. On Saturday, the Riders held on, making some big plays late and in overtime and overcoming a couple of official’s mistakes to beat Kingston in overtime 15-14 at Peninsula College.
The 12-6 Riders, a No. 4 seed, will next play No. 1 Lynden at Federal Way Memorial Stadium at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Win or lose, the Riders move on to play again Feb. 14.
Coach Sam Salanoa wore a shirt at the game that said, “First Season, Forever Remembered.”
“It’s huge [for the program],” Salanoa said. “The girls show up ready to practice every week. They deserve to be in state.”
Port Angeles played Kingston three times this year and all three times, the games were close, with the Riders winning 42-35, 30-29 in overtime and 15-14 in overtime.
Neither team could get much going to begin with as neither team threatened to score in the first 15 minutes.
Finally, the Riders started finding success with sending Tyann Connary, a 6-foot-tall freshman, up the middle of the field as Kingston keyed on not allowed Pyper Alton to get the ball downfield. Quarterback Kennedy Rognlien kept hitting Connary for 10- to 15-yard receptions as Kingston could not defend against her height.
Salanoa said Connary was moved up to varsity during the district games to replace a couple of players who weren’t available. He told her she would be open because Kingston was going to focus on Alton.
“We all hype each other up,” Connary said.
In stoppage time, it appeared that the Riders scored the first touchdown of the game on a pass to Miriam Cobb, as Rognlien zipped a pass past the outstretched arms of a Kingston defender. But the play had been called dead by an early whistle. After a long delay, the touchdown was taken off the board and Port Angeles was given the ball on the 2-yard line.
The mistake didn’t matter, however as on the next play Alton hit Rognlien with a pass for a touchdown. Rognlien used her soccer goalkeeper skills to leap high to catch the ball that was well over her head.
In the second half, both teams started moving the ball better. Kingston scored to make the score 7-7. After a Buccaneers interception, they scored again to make it 14-7 with just 3:54 left in the game.
Down for the first time all game and with Kingston having all the momentum, the Riders responded with Connary continuing to make catch after catch up the middle. Rognlien also got the ball up over a couple of Kingston defenders for a big play to Audrey Rudd. Rognlien then moved to the running back position and ran the ball in for a tying score in the final two minutes of the game.
Disaster nearly struck for the Riders afterward as again, there was an inadvertent whistle with Kingston having the ball for a final drive. Kingston gained 25 yards on a running play as there was confusion on the Port Angeles side of the ball. The Kingston play was allowed to stand, giving the Buccaneers great field position.
Kingston had four cracks at a winning touchdown and the Riders defense kept holding. Kingston completed a pass into the end zone on fourth down, but Cobb made a huge play, getting the quarterback’s flag first on a blitz for a sack just before Kingston got the ball off, sending the game to overtime.
“I always tell the girls you’re going to face adversity. There’s going to be calls that won’t go your way. You have to stay in the game. They’re really good about that,” Salanoa said.
“We moved past those plays,” Connary agreed.
Each team got three cracks to score for a single point for each score. Alton hit Rognlien with a pass for a point as Rognlien ended up scoring all of Port Angeles’ points.
That was Port Angeles’ only successful conversion. The Port Angeles defense held for three straight plays, not allowing any open receivers in the end zone. Kingston’s final pass hit the ground, giving the Riders a hard-fought state tournament win in their first year of existence.
The Sequim girls also made state in the Wolves’ first year of existence. They lost on the road to Squalicum 28-0 in their quarterfinal. Klahowya is the other team in the state semifinals.
The Port Angeles girls flag football team and coach Sam Salanoa celebrates qualifying for the state 1A/2A semifinals in the program’s first year of existence. (Pierre LaBossiere/Peninsula Daily News)
