PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles picked up the defensive stop it needed late, but the Roughriders’ offense couldn’t put together one last touchdown drive, falling 20-14 to North Mason at Civic Field in each team’s Olympic League opener.
“We got 110 percent effort from everybody,” Port Angeles coach Bret Curtis said of Friday’s game.
“One of our messages is that there is going to be adversity. It’s going to be there in everything you do, and especially in football.
“And we had some adversity there and we had to rally.
“We’ve all seen teams that have trouble rallying like that, and if there’s one thing we can take away from this game it’s that our team doesn’t quit and that will serve us well as we progress through the season.”
Trailing 14-7 early in the fourth quarter, the Riders turned the ball over when a punt snap deflected off an upback and was recovered by North Mason inside the Port Angeles 10-yard line.
On the next play, Bulldogs running back Mac Jones broke a host of arm tackles and found the end zone to put North Mason up 20-7.
A 42-yard kick return by Joe Danz set the Riders up on the Bulldogs’ side of the field on the ensuing possession.
Two plays later, quarterback Ryan Rodocker found tight end Caleb West behind the North Mason defense for a 43-yard gain and a first-and-goal.
A play later, Cyler McBride busted through for a 4-yard touchdown plunge.
McBride wasn’t in the huddle before the play and had to run out on the field and ask where to line up, but he hit the hole hard and his score cut the deficit to 20-14 with 7:32 to go.
North Mason pushed the ball to the Port Angeles 35 on its next possession before the Riders’ defense stepped up.
Linebacker Dane Bradow crashed through the line and stuffed the Bulldogs’ Trey Fisher for a 1-yard loss on second down.
After a false start penalty on North Mason, the Bulldogs took to the air for just the second time in the game.
Quarterback Preston Poulton appeared to have a receiver open on a corner route to the sideline, but Riders linebacker Branden Currie dropped back in coverage and disrupted the route to force a punt.
Port Angeles took over on its 20, and after three straight running plays from workhorse back Kellen Landry faced a second-and-6 from the 34.
Rodocker was flushed from the pocket on the next play, and did his best Russell Wilson impersonation to escape two defenders and find Landry for no gain.
An interception on the next play was wiped out by a roughing the passer penalty on North Mason, setting the Riders up at midfield.
Rodocker rifled a third down pass to Danz along the sideline to put Port Angeles on the Bulldogs’ 36.
But a first-down sack pushed the Riders back 9 yards and a 5-yard pass to West kept the clock rolling.
Port Angeles spiked the ball on third down, setting up a fourth-and-19 with less than a minute to play.
Rodocker’s pass to Danz was incomplete down the left sideline and North Mason took over on downs.
“I know everybody on the field wanted it and we played hard, but it just didn’t go our way,” Landry said.
“There were some plays that were broken that we could fix, and I think we could have won the game if those had worked well for us. But we made some mistakes that pushed us back pretty far.”
Landry rushed 24 times for 103 yards and a touchdown and also caught three passes for an additional 40 yards.
“We ran the counters and the powers where the guard pulls and the line blocked pretty well,” Landry said.
“And a lot of times the cutbacks were open and I took the opportunities that were there.”
Curtis admired the effort Landry showed on both sides of the ball.
“He’s just a real competitor. You hear that term warrior used sometimes,” Curtis said of Landry.
“Lots of our guys like him are going both ways on offense and defense, and we’re real proud of them because that’s tough, especially down the stretch, because fatigue is going to be a factor.
“But you have to dig deep, and we dug deep, but just came out a little short tonight.”
The Riders started strong, putting together a 12-play, 61-yard drive that chewed up more than half of the first quarter, capped by Landry’s 1-yard TD run.
Port Angeles stopped North Mason on its first possession, but Rodocker threw an interception and the Bulldogs scored on the next play, a 42-yard rumble by Sterling McIntosh.
North Mason added another score on a 1-yard run from Poulton to lead 14-7 at half.
The Bulldogs finished with 36 carries for 222 yards running out of a crowded, four-man backfield.
“That tight little [inverted wish]bone they ran is pretty hard to defend,” Curtis said.
“They favored the dive and power/lead type runs, and they did fairly well with it.”
There were differences between North Mason’s option offense and the option run by Vashon in last week’s Port Angeles win.
“This team ran less to the outside and there were less pitches, more stuff to the middle,” Landry said.
“The dive worked for them. That’s the responsibility of the linebackers like me and the nose tackle to fill and get stops there.
“But we can shore that up.”
Despite the loss, Curtis was encouraged.
“Every coach wants to get their team to compete. It’s tough to lose, tough to lose, but I liked what we showed and how we responded.”
The Riders (0-1, 1-2) will host Bremerton (0-1, 0-3) in their homecoming game on Friday.
The Knights have been shut out in their last two games, losing 7-0 to Klahowya in overtime and 33-0 to Olympic.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
