CLALLAM BAY — There were many moments in Clallam Bay’s 66-52 Northwest Football League loss to Tulalip Heritage in which the Bruins could have folded.
Clallam Bay could have stood by and watched the Hawks’ most polished playmaker, Robert Miles Jr., as he continued to make explosive plays in Tulalip’s rushing and passing attack in the first half of Friday’s game.
The Bruins, all 12 who were in uniform, could have let down and allowed the Hawks to run away with the game when Tulalip recovered its own onside kick and promptly scored for a 38-20 lead before halftime of Friday’s game.
Instead, Clallam Bay bowed up, and dug in for a determined, if not complete, second-half comeback.
“It was a tough loss,” Bruins coach Cal Ritter said.
“I thought we were prepared for this. I knew it was going to be a shootout, but when you score 52 points you figure you should be able to win a football game.
“I feel bad for the seniors. But we are still going to the playoffs.”
With the win, Tulalip will be the third seed at the Quad-District playoffs and earns a home play-in game with a state tournament bid on the line.
Clallam Bay will have to hit the road for its district game, against the No. 3 team from District 4, on either Nov. 6 or 7.
Miles did most, but not all of his damage in the first half.
He tallied four of his five catches and 141 of his 145 receiving yards in the first two quarters, while also running for 101 of his 157 rushing yards.
“We just couldn’t stop him,” Ritter said.
“We practiced all week for it, but we let him get behind us, and if you let someone like him get behind you, you are in trouble.”
The Bruins often found themselves a step slow on blitz plays defensively, and struggled with wrapping up Tulalip players for tackles.
“I don’t think we got enough pressure on the quarterback,” Ritter said.
“We didn’t rally to the ball as well as we can.”
Clallam Bay was playing without nose tackle/offensive lineman Justin Messinger, who Ritter believes is lost for the season with a knee injury.
“Not having him available to plug that middle hurt quite a bit,” Ritter said.
His absence also was notable on the right side of the Bruins’ offensive attack.
“Justin would have helped us out quite a bit on that side offensively,” Ritter said.
“He would have given us more time to do what we wanted to do.”
Clallam Bay still did plenty offensively, led by freshman running back Clayton Willis.
Willis wheeled his way to 251 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 33 carries. He added three receptions for 80 yards and two scores and also piled up 71 return yards.
Willis actually edged Miles in total yards 402-392.
His best plays both ended in the end zone.
On a broken pass play in the first half, Willis, a sixth-place finisher at state in the high jump last year as an eighth-grader, out-jumped Miles for a pass along the sideline.
Willis made a fingertip grab, spun past Miles and sped 34 yards for the score.
On the Bruins’ first drive of the second half, Willis took a handoff left, stutter-stepped at the line of scrimmage and took off for the left sideline where he was met by a wave of Tulalip defenders.
There was a brief lull before Willis popped out for a 20-yard TD to pull Clallam Bay within 38-26.
The Bruins changed things up defensively after halftime, putting Willis as a deep safety on whatever side of the field Miles lined up and moving Alan Greene to shadow Miles in man coverage.
That left space available in the middle, and the Hawks took advantage, with quarterback Willy Enick and running back Nashone Whitebear alternating for gains.
“When we changed things up in the second half they found our soft spot in the middle,” Ritter said.
Down 58-34 in the fourth quarter, injuries started to mount for the Bruins.
Senior Martin Cummings, already playing on a bum ankle, aggravated the injury, and despite his objections, was forced to come out for a series.
Willis also took some hits, some legal and one that got a Tulalip player ejected from the game.
He left the game for a play after suffering a stinger, a shooting pain that travels down the neck to the arm.
Willis promptly came back in the game, and rattled off a series of runs, but then was speared in the back and then kicked by a Tulalip player at the end of another play.
The Hawks player was ejected. Willis lay face down on the field for a minute, but hopped up and later returned.
“We got banged up in the fourth [quarter],” Ritter said.
“Martin hurt that ankle, Willis got popped there, and Alan hurt his hip.
“But that’s the toughest group of kids I’ve seen. When you only have 12 kids or so, you’ve got to be.”
Clallam Bay capped that drive with a 13-yard TD pass from Greene to Kyle Keys, and then recovered the ensuing onside kick.
Willis added another score on a 15-yard run to pull Clallam Bay within 58-46, but the Bruins would come no closer.
Clallam Bay missed out on 6 of 8 2-point conversion attempts, leaving 12 points on the table.
Conversely, Tulalip converted 6 of its 9 2-point tries.
“Not making the conversions hurt a lot,” Ritter said.
With under a minute to play, Ritter brought his senior class of Cummings, Greene and Keys off the field, and the trio received a round of applause.
“We pulled off a great fourth quarter and that right there is the best group of seniors I’ve coached in my time,” Ritter said.
“I wanted to get them out of the game with a couple seconds left so they could get their just due.”
Clallam Bay (1-2, 3-4) visits Neah Bay on Friday.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
