PORT TOWNSEND — The Quilcene Rangers football team found the Acorns to be a relatively easy nut to crack in a Class 1B Quad-District winner-to-state shutout Friday night at Memorial Field.
Coach Trey Beathard said his squad played one of its cleanest games of the season in a 52-0 victory
“Our kids played well on both sides of the ball, we had a good night,” Beathard said. “Like a lot of teams we can be a little mistake-prone: pre-snap penalties, fumbled exchanges and missed assignments, but last night we made very few mistakes and had a lot of great effort.”
Oakville came into the contest with the most passing yardage of any team in Class 1B and the Rangers were ready.
“They had the best passing offense and the No. 1 receiver, over 1,400 yards, and they caught some passes on us, but our secondary, Andrew Perez, Robert Evans and Tyler Beukes, they kept them in front of them all night,” Beathard said.
And the Rangers were able to get a push up front.
“We had 15 QB pressures, 15 times their QB had to throw on the run,” Beathard said. “Mason Iverson, he had eight tackles, four sacks and eight quarterback pressures.”
Beathard said Taylor Boling also was involved in the pass rush and Tyler Wills forced two fumbles, both recovered by Perez and which led to Quilcene scores.
Evans found the end zone on three of his four carries (for 52 yards), caught a 55-yard TD from Perez and punched in two 2-point tries.
Every player on the Quilcene roster saw the field, including the team’s set of twins, Brinnon’s Tristan and Jason Naputi.
The Naputi brothers, natives of Guam, are valued on the team for their ability to lighten the mood. But Beathard said the pair also put in plenty of hard work.
“They were both so excited to play at Memorial Field in Port Townsend,” Beathard said. “They said ‘This is the first stadium we get to play in’. They both made tackles against Oakville’s starters and the biggest cheer from our crowd was when the twins made tackles and made plays. It meant a lot for them to get some cheers.”
Quilcene should find out its first-round state opponent at some time Sunday.
Toledo 62, Forks 20
KELSO — Flashes of Forks’ football future were on display as the Spartans hung tough with No. 4 Toledo (9-1) for a half before fading in a 63-20 winner-to-state Class 2B District 4 Crossover playoff.
“A fairly typical story to our season, we got worn down physically and they did a great job of running the football,” coach Trevor Highfield said. “They ran the ball really well, their RB and QB did a good job with the ball in their hands and we didn’t tackle well in some big moments.”
The Spartans spotted Toledo a pair of scores to open the game, but roared back to cut the lead to 14-13 late in the first half after a rushing touchdown by sophomore Kaden Ward and the first of two touchdown passes to Gage Willenbrink.
Toledo had answers, going up 21-13 with about four minutes left until the break, and capitalizing after allowing a big gain on the ground by Forks quarterback Bubba Hernandez-Stansbury.
Hernandez-Stansbury broke off a 45-yard scamper, but the Spartans suffered a pair of sacks and were forced to punt, setting up a quick Toledo score and a 28-13 halftime score.
Hernandez-Stansbury com-pleted 13-of-25 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns, one a 66-yarder to Gage Willenbrink and the other another long score to Willenbrink according to Forks’ coach Trevor Highfield.
Toledo broke open the game completely early in the third quarter when the Riverhawks blocked and recovered a punt for a touchdown.,
“We had a punt block for a touchdown and a miscued snap and another one where they took the ball and got us inside the 20 and that kind of steamrolled,” Highfield said.
Running back and linebacker Kade Highfield left the game with a knee injury in the first half.
Highfield said his son is out of the hospital but didn’t break a bone and is in a brace.
“We couldn’t get anything going in the run game especially after Kade’s injury, their defensive line was really good,” Highfield said.
The Spartans wrapped the season at 3-7 overall.
“We suited up 24 kids, it is a challenge and they are young, but the majority of our players at impactful positions are freshmen or sophomores. We had a lot of learning opportunities this season, a bunch of positives to take away with such a young group and being put on the field in a real playoff situation is only going to help them moving forward.”
W.F. West 56, Sequim 3
CHEHALIS — Going up against a powerful 9-1 team in W.F. West, the Sequim Wolves lost 56-3 in their district playoff matchup.
The Wolves finish the season at 5-5, their first .500 season in three years.
W.F. West got up 28-0 after one quarter and 56-0 by the half. W.F. West’s Gage Brumfield, who is committed to play for Eastern Washington University, passed 16-for-20 for 225 yards and five touchdowns, and ran for 74 yards, all in the first half.
Sequim got a 37-yard field goal in the second half from Andrew Keeler.
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The Daily Chronicle’s Josh Kirshenbaum contributed to this article.
Skyler Smith/Blast Zone Media Forks’ Cash Barajas attempts to haul in a pass despite the early contact of the Toledo defensive back during the Spartans’ 63-20 Class 2B District 4 Crossover playoff on Friday at Kelso High School.
