FORKS — A few more games of the caliber of Neah Bay’s 26-20 overtime triumph over Forks and the West End neighbors may have themselves a newfound football rivalry.
This instant classic had all the hallmarks of a rivalry game — a packed grandstand, a loud student section, plenty of impactful plays on both sides and a thrilling finish.
Neah Bay stuffed Forks’ Tristan Pisani for no gain on fourth-and-2 at the Red Devils’ 17-yard line in overtime to end the Spartans’ possession and give themselves the ball for their own series at Forks’ 25-yard line.
Cole Svec picked a fine time to make his longest rush of the game, an 18-yard gain to the Spartans’ 2-yard line, to set up the game winner for Neah Bay.
It took two tries for Rwehabura Munyagi Jr. to score on a quarterback sneak, this one from 1-yard out to give the Red Devils the win.
Neah Bay’s longtime statistician Bud Denney believes it’s the first time the Class 1B Red Devils have ever beaten 1A Forks on the gridiron.
Svec, a senior who has played in two state championship games in the Tacoma Dome, enjoyed the raucous environment.
“Funnest game I’ve ever played in,” Svec said.
“This was a playoff atmosphere. They finally accepted it [Neah Bay’s request to schedule a game] and it was worth it for both sides, I think.”
Forks controlled much of the game, holding the elusive Svec to 19 carries for 63 yards, and piling up 385 rushing yards on 69 carries offensively.
The Spartans broke a scoreless tie on a 28-yard touchdown run by Jack Dahlgren with 58 seconds left in the first half.
Dahlgren received a crucial block from fullback Garrison Schumack on the play, springing Dahlgren for a run up the left sideline to paydirt.
Dahlgren rushed 19 times for 92 yards on the game.
“They were just running that power with those two or three big backs. They’d either run counter or run on the strong side behind No. 99 [Dahlgren],” Svec said.
Neah Bay answered on the first play of the third quarter, a 53-yard catch and run by Munyagi from Ben Greene.
The pass was underthrown, but Munyagi outjumped Forks’ Gavin Palmer for the ball and raced in for the tying touchdown.
Schumack answered back for the Spartans, capping an eight-play, 52-yard drive with a twisting, turning effort to score from 1-yard out for a 12-6 Forks lead.
The Spartans had a chance to add to their lead when they swarmed Svec on a punt attempt and took over at the Red Devils’ 30-yard line.
Facing a fourth-and-1 at the Neah Bay 21-yard line, Forks lineman Iziah Morton committed a false start to move the Spartans back 5 yards.
Forks chose to pass on fourth-and-6 and Gabe Reaume’s pass was intercepted by Munyagi and returned 85 yards up the field and then back across for a TD.
“I took it up the right sideline and I couldn’t feel anybody behind me, but I decided to cut back across the field because I saw open space and I didn’t think they would run me down,” Munyagi said.
Up 14-12 on Munyagi’s two-point conversion pass to Cameron Buzzell, Neah Bay also had a chance to build a bigger advantage.
Munyagi found Cameron Buzzell for a 31-yard gain on fourth-and-11 at midfield, and hit Kenrick Doherty Jr. on a crossing route for another gain near the Forks goal line. But Doherty was stripped on the play and the Spartans recovered in the end zone for a touchback with a little over 11 minutes to play.
Forks then put together a clock-chewing 15-play, 80-yard drive that ran more than 7 1/2 minutes off the clock before Cole Baysinger dove across the pylon for a 7-yard TD run and a 20-14 lead.
“That was a phenomenal play, one of the best plays of the year,” Spartans coach Emil West said.
“He cut it up and beat one of their tall, fast guys [Svec] to the corner of the end zone.”
Baysinger had eight carries for 93 yards on the game, including a 24-yard gain on third down to keep that last scoring drive alive.
Neah Bay rallied late to force overtime, scoring on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Rwehabura Munyagi Jr. to Chris Tageant to tie Forks at 20-20 with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
A two-point conversion pass was batted down by the Spartans’ Jeffrey Schumack to preserve the tie.
Forks was called for a 10-yard penalty on the first play of overtime.
Runs by Dahlgren and Pisani picked up 18 of the 20 needed yards for a first down, setting up a fourth-and-two from the Red Devils’ 17.
Neah Bay sent the house on a blitz on the play, stopping Pisani for no gain.
“That final play offensively in overtime, I’m going to second-guess myself forever,” West said.
“Jack Dahlgren was a killer for us. He’s a stud. That’s why not going to him or Cole for the last play…”
Contained for much of the game, Svec came up big on Neah Bay’s overtime possession, gaining 18-yards and setting up the Red Devils near the goal line.
“I couldn’t go anywhere until we got our adrenaline, our team work, our family just got into it,” Svec said.
“That play was the 35 stretch, where I run through the last hole, and I just bounced outside went around and I thought I could get the ball over for the TD, but my gloves were too wet, so I didn’t want to put it out completely and risk a fumble. But we got the TD and got the win.”
Munyagi’s third touchdown came on a 1-yard QB sneak.
“Rweha coming in and playing so well, you know our starting quarterback is our starting quarterback,” Neah Bay coach Tony McCaulley said.
”We tried Ben [Greene] tonight and in 11-man he does a good job for us, but he struggled a little tonight. We like to use Rweha, his athleticism is off the charts, so we wanted to use the speed a little bit against them in the passing game.”
McCaulley was pleased with how his team responded to the challenges presented by the power-running Spartans.
“I think the kids came to play a little more physically than we have all year, so that was good to see,” he said. “This was a really good game for us, we like to see the mental toughness.”
McCaulley praised the contributions of two freshmen on defense.
“I have to give it up for Josee Tyree and Logan Halttunen, they got a lot of minutes for us,” he said.
“Logan had a lot of tackles at linebacker for us. He’s 110 pounds and he was making some big stops against some big backs.
McCaulley had been asking to schedule a game with Forks for years.
“Forks came out and played us tough, they played hard and they wanted it just as much as us,” he said.
“I’m sure glad they gave us this game. I thanked their coaching staff for the chance and I hope we can do it again. It was a fun one.”
Neah Bay 26, Forks 20, OT
Neah Bay 0 0 14 6 6— 26
Forks 0 6 6 8 0— 20
Second Quarter
F—Dahlgren 28 run (pass failed)
Third Quarter
NB—Munyagi Jr. 53 pass from B. Greene (pass failed) 11:38
F—Schumack 1 run (pass failed) 8:17
NB—Munyagi 85 interception return (Buzzell pass from Munyagi) 4:34
Fourth Quarter
F—Baysinger 7 run (Dahlgren run) 3:31
NB—Tageant 4 pass from Munyagi (pass failed) :45
Overtime
NB—Munyagi 1 run (game over)
Individual Stats
Rushing—F: Pisani 27-129, Baysinger 8-93, Dahlgren 18-92, G. Schumack 14-71; Reaume 2-(-4); NB: Svec 19-63, Munyagi 8-28, Buzzell 1-11, P. Green 2-(-2), B. Greene 3-(-5).
Passing—F: Reaume 0-3-1, 0.; NB: Munyagi 6-10-0, 92, TD; B. Greene 1-3-1, 53, TD.
Receiving—NB: Munyagi 1-53, Buzzell 3-50, Doherty 2-38, Tageant 1-4.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
