In Friday night Olympic Peninsula prep football games:
Forks 76, Rainier 22
RAINIER — The Forks football team responded to the loss of starter Ryan Rancourt with a thundering 76-22 win over Rainier, the Spartans’ biggest win of the year.
Nate Dahlgren had more than 200 yards rushing for Forks, said coach Trevor Highfield.
“Nate Dahlgren did a tremendous job running the ball,” Highfield said.
Highfield said the Spartans scored on every single possession except for one late in the game that ended in a fumble.
The Spartans lost Rancourt to a broken ankle in a 26-7 win last week over Friday Harbor. Highfield said that injury forced his players to examine their priorities.
“Guys are really realizing that they have to take advantage of every opportunity. Nothing is guaranteed,” he said. “I think the guys really took that to heart.”
Hayden Baker, a star for the Spartans who graduated recently, also came to a practise and spoke to the team last week, Highfield said.
In addition to Dahlgren, Highfield said Gunner Rogers played well at quarterback and offensive lineman sloane Tuamua and Matthew Wallerstedt also had big games blocking. Brody Lausche also was moved to fullback and had an outstanding game blocking, Highfield said.
It was the third win in four games for the Spartans, who are starting to roll over a 1-2 start to the season.
Forks (2-2, 4-2) plays its third straight on the road next Friday at Pe Ell-Willapa Valley (3-1, 3-3).
Lummi 40, Crescent 22
LUMMI — Crescent was killed by three costly turnovers that led to three Lummi touchdowns in a 40-22 loss.
Without the turnovers, the Loggers might have had a chance to win, according to coach Brian Shimko.
“We moved the ball well. Other than the turnovers, it was a good, hard-fought game,” he said.
Crescent’s defense also played well, forcing three turnovers and stopping the Blackhawks on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. “We stopped them in the red zone three times,” Shimko said.
One Lummi interception return was for 72 yards, while a fumble return went for 51. Another fumble led to a quick 6-yard touchdown.
Conner Ferro-May ran the ball 20 times for 207 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown run, and had two touchown catches of 58 and 28 yards on passes from Henry Bourm as he tallied about 300 yards of offense from scrimmage.
Bourm passed 12-for-15 for over 150 yards and two TDs.
Tommy Leonard ran the ball 15 times for 85 yards, while Lukas Love had five catches for 57 yards and Conner Bauers had three catches for 10 yards.
Bauers also tipped a pass that was intercepted by Carter Clifford while Ferro-May had an interception. Dominiq Sprague ran the ball seven times for 27 yards.
Crescent (1-5, 2-5) will next play at Darrington next Saturday.
North Mason 36, Sequim 21
BELFAIR — The North Mason football team scored two touchdowns within eight seconds in the third quarter, then got a 53-yard pass play to open the fourth quarter to seal a 36-21 win over Sequim.
Aiden Gockerell, who had another one of his 100-yard games, scored a 20-yard touchdown at the end of the first quarter, breaking an almost sure tackle to score. to give Sequim a 7-6 lead. Gockerell also had a second-half interception.
The Wolves got a huge break when Toppy Robideau had an interception inside the 5-yard line to end a Bulldogs’ threat. The Wolves couldn’t get a drive going and then North Mason got a big break of its own, getting the ball back on the 17-yard line after a bad punt. That led to a 15-yard touchdown by North Mason’s Trevon Simons with just 17 seconds left in the first half.
Gockerell’s interception early in the third quarter led to a short drive, capped off by a 1-yard Lars Wiker run for a score to make it 14-14.
North Mason blew the game open very quickly. The Bulldogs got a call from the refs on a pass interference, setting up a 10-yard touchdown run for the Bulldogs.
Then, the Bulldogs kicked a bit of a pooch kick on the kickoff and recovered the ball at the 19-yard line. It took North Mason just one play to score a second third-quarter touchdown. Suddenly, North Mason had a 28-14 lead.
Sequim got back in the game early in the fourth. On a fourth-and-long from the 29-yard line, Wiker found tight end Andrew Keeler wide open running a seam route. Keeler was tackled at the 1-yard line. A couple of plays later, Wyatt Sanford took an inside pitch from Wiker, technically a pass, and ran it to the left sideline to just get in for a TD.
Sequim was down just 28-21 at this point, but North Mason struck with a big play, a 53-yard pass completion to Dakota Filer, to score and make it a two-score game again. After that, Sequim was never able to seriously threaten.
Sequim (2-3, 2-5) plays at North Kitsap (5-0, 6-1) next Friday.
Other games:
Bainbridge 31, Port Angeles 0
Neah Bay 2, Concrete 0 (Forfeit)
East Jefferson at Charles Wright, canceled.
All these games were on the road. Check back on www.peninsuladailynews.com during the weekend for game updates.
