PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles was celebrating homecoming, but Olympic owned the turf of Civic Field.
The Trojans racked up 257 yards on the ground, averaging nearly 8 yards per carry, to beat the Roughriders 32-19 in Olympic League action.
“They came out and whupped up on us in the first half,” Port Angeles coach Tom Wahl said after Friday’s game. “They were overwhelming us and we weren’t adjusting quick enough to them.
“They had good speed, and their running backs are talented. None of them seemed to be slow.”
Along with the robust run game, Olympic scored on a 79-yard punt return and a 60-yard interception return, both by Keshun McGee, to build a 25-6 lead in the first half.
Port Angeles drove into the red zone with under 2 minutes left, but quarterback Ryan Rodocker threw his second interception, and the Trojans took their 19-point lead into halftime.
The Riders had the ball first in the second half, starting at their own 48-yard line thanks to a nice kick return by Miki Andrus.
They drove to Olympic’s 12-yard line before the drive stalled and Port Angeles turned it over on downs.
The Riders’ defense forced a three-and-out and then the offense took the ball to the Olympic 25 before yet another down ended when Port Angeles couldn’t convert on fourth down.
“I was telling the boys, to be quite honest, we had enough opportunities, if you think about it,” Wahl said.
“[Near] the red zone three times that we didn’t score. If you add those in, then we win. Even if you add the two in that we didn’t get in the second half, it’s 33-32.
“So, we’ve got to put it in. We’ve got to finish those drives.”
Port Angeles returned Andrus and reliable center Billy Minks. Minks missed a few games due to injury, while Andrus, the Riders’ leading rusher in 2013, was playing his first game of the season after moving back to Port Angeles from Nevada.
The senior ran for 83 yards on 10 carries and caught four passes for 45 yards.
“Feels good,” Andrus said of playing for the Riders again. “I missed my team.
“I did decent, but as a team we didn’t play like we should. We played against a tough team, but didn’t play the best we could.”
Wahl wondered before Friday’s game if he and his team — players and coaches — were expecting too much from Andrus.
“I was worried today about one thing, and I never really mentioned it to the team, but I was worried that they might think that Miki was just going to be the solution and that he was just going to, like Superman, blow through the other team, and that defensively he was going to pick [off] three or four passes and come up and have 10 tackles,” Wahl said.
“It’s a team game and it takes 11 guys and everybody on the sideline working together to make it happen.
“So that’s a good lesson, and I think maybe that’s a hard lesson, because I think that might have been part of our problem, possibly.”
Both teams went scoreless in the third quarter. Olympic opened the second-half scoring with a reverse to Evan Quitevis that went for a 59-yard score to make it 32-6 with 4:01 left in the game.
The Riders responded with a 73-yard drive in 1 minute and 17 seconds, punctuated by a 16-yard pass from Rodocker to Kellen Landry to cut the lead to 32-12 with 2:44 left.
Port Angeles kicker Ryan Beck then executed a nice onside kick that ricocheted off an Olympic player and was recovered by Andrew Harrelson at the Roughriders’ 41.
The Riders took just under 2 minutes to score, with Sam Burton running in from 4 yards out with 53 second left.
“Maybe we need to be a little more aggressive,” Wahl said.
“I think we made some things happen there at the end by being more aggressive, and sometimes you’ve got to do that.”
Port Angeles couldn’t recover the ensuing onside kick, and Olympic went to the victory formation to end the game.
Rodocker finished 9 for 16 passing with 122 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Nathan Angevine ran 15 times for 68 yards, including the Riders’ first touchdown, and caught four passes for 45 yards.
Landry ran six times for 28 yards to go along with his 16-yard touchdown catch, and Burton had five carries for 18 yards.
John Boesenberg also had a catch for Port Angeles for 11 yards.
For Olympic, which is unbeaten in league play (2-0, 3-2 overall) Logan Madison gained 80 yards on the ground and McGee had 66 yards rushing, including a 21-yard touchdown run to go along with his other two scores.
“We worked a lot all week on execution, especially on our offense,” Trojans coach Sal Quitevis said.
“We talked about tempo and our tempo was really good and it showed with our blocking and getting our running backs outside. They did a great job of running the ball and finding open space.”
Friday’s game was the first of four straight home contests for Port Angeles (1-2, 3-2).
The Riders host Black Hills (2-3) in a nonleague contest this Friday.
Olympic 32, Port Angeles 19
Olympic 13 12 0 7— 32
Port Angeles 6 0 0 13— 19
First Quarter
O—McGee 21 run (kick blocked)
O—McGee 79 punt return (McInnis kick)
PA—Angevine 3 run (kick no good)
Second Quarter
O—Madison 16 run (run failed)
O—McGee 60 interception return (kick no good)
Fourth Quarter
O—Quitevis 59 run (McInnis kick)
PA—Landry 16 pass from Rodocker (run failed)
PA—Burton 4 run (Beck kick)
Individual Stats
Rushing—O: Madison 11-80, Johnson 8-59, McGee 7-66, Enriquez 6-43, Quitevis 1-59. PA: Andrus 10-83, Angevine 15-68, Landry 6-28, Burton 5-18.
Passing—O: McInnis 2-5, 15 yards. PA: Rodocker 9-16-2, 122; Angevine 0-1.
Receiving—O: Harris 1-8, Wade 1-7. PA: Angevine 3-47, Andrus 4-45, Landry 1-11, John Boesenberg 1-11.
________
Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
