FORKS — Forks didn’t play its best football Friday night at Spartan Stadium and that’s a problem when your opponent is the No. 3-ranked Class 1A Montesano Bulldogs.
“They were a well-tuned team and we had a lot of opportunities, we made some good plays throughout the night, but inevitably they came up big,” Spartans coach Emil West said.
“We didn’t play our best football. That wasn’t us. But luckily it’s early in the year, its not the end of the season. There’s room for growth.”
West said Forks was able to move the ball offensively against the Bulldogs, but penalties at bad times hurt his squad.
“On offense, the same stuff we got away with in our first four games like offsides penalties, came back to haunt us,” he said. “We’d get the ball inside the red zone but go offsides and get marched back.”
“On our opening drive we took it inside the 10-yard line, had a First-and-goal and weren’t able to punch it in and that was almost like a taste of what was to come.
“We moved the ball fairly well, but weren’t able to put points up on the board.”
Montesano limited Forks’ star running back Cole Baysinger to 35 yards rushing.
West said Baysinger got a little dinged up in the second half and was less effective in the Spartans’ option run packages with Brett Moody at quarterback. Moody led Forks in rushing with 88 yards and receiving with 60 yards.
“He had a heck of a game running the option at QB and catching it at tight end,” West said.
“Defensively, the thing that Monte did so well, we had a solid pass rush, but he [quarterback Trevor Ridgway] was able to get rid of the ball quick. “He wasn’t sitting in the pocket for very long. And Moody was making plays all over the field, and as good as a pass rusher that he is, and I think he’ll be All-Conference, [Ridgway] was getting rid of the ball so quick, Moody couldn’t get there on an all-out sprint rush.”
Ridgway completed 16 of 20 passes for 177 yards and All-Evergreen League running back Carson Klinger totaled 84 rushing yards and also threw a 56-yard TD pass for Montesano (1-0, 5-0)
Forks (0-1, 4-1) trailed 21-6 at halftime, scoring late in the second quarter when Baysinger threw a 15-yard touchdown to Gabe Terrones.
“Terrones is coming off a concussion and he missed last week’s game, so it was good to see him come back and work hard to get one,” West said.
“We felt pretty good there, we scored right before half and had some momentum and their opening drive of the second half they scored, and it was rough, we didn’t come back from that.”
The Spartans hit the road to play on Tenino’s brand-new black-colored turf field next Friday. The Beavers (0-1, 1-3) were blanked 35-0 by Hoquiam on Friday.
North Kitsap 42, Sequim 0
POULSBO — The Wolves hung tight with the Class 2A No. 7 Vikings through the first half, trailing 14-0 at the break. But North Kitsap is ranked that high for a reason with a talented running back in Dax Solis and a stiff defense that came through with big stops.
“It was even tougher than it looks, we had some chances to have it be 14-7 or 14-14 at halftime,” Sequim coach Erik Wiker said.
“They stopped us at the 1-yard line, knocked down a pass that would have been a TD, and we went for it instead of kicking a field goal and got stopped. “They tightened up in the red zone and played well.”
Solis scored three rushing touchdowns and racked up more than 200 yards on the ground for North Kitsap (2-0, 5-0).
“I knew he had quick feet from watching on film. He looked like a big guy for a fullback but he has straight speed,” Wiker said. “I think he’ll be a gamechanger for them going forward.”
Wiker said quarterback Riley Cowan played one of his better games of the season. He completed 16 of 38 throws for 160 yards. Gavin Velarde had five catches for 53 yards and Kyler Rollness added two receptions for 25 yards.
“We started two freshman offensive lineman and to get the yards we did against the best team we’ve faced was something to build on,” Wiker said.
Sequim (0-2, 2-3) visits North Mason (1-2, 3-2) on Friday.
Quilcene 56, Rainier Chr. 20
KENT — Rangers head coach Trey Beathard said his team played its best defensive game of the season in a win under the lights against the Mustangs.
“I think we did [dominate],” Beathard said. “We were ahead 28-0 before they scored and they broke a couple scrambles to score a few late touchdowns for them when we had mainly substitutes in.
Beathard said Quilcene got a good push upfront from its defensive line.
“We got pretty good pressure on them upfront. Our defensive ends Robert Comstock and Kristian Mack set the edge and played great and our secondary, all of them, played well.
“Andy Johnston had a lot of good tackles, Ben Bruner had an interception and a long return to the 1-yard line.
Bishop Budnek had an interception as well. The defense did help out our offense. “
Johnston finished with 160 rushing yards, including a 29-yard TD run.
“And he had quite a few 15 to 30 yard runs,” Beathard said.
“Some of those were called runs and some were scrambles.”
Johnston has been playing with an injured hand, but was in a soft cast for Friday’s game.
Holdem Elkins threw a 12-yard TD pass to freshman Zach Budnek. “That was his first catch ever,” Beathard said.
And Johnston also found Bruner for a 38-yard TD reception.
But Beathard said his team has a lot of work to do offensively to stand up against defending league champs Tacoma Baptist next Saturday.
“We had too many negative plays because of fumbled snaps/exchanges and bad shotgun snaps,” he said. “We were a little sloppy offensively, but i can live with it if we play super-super hard and we played our hardest all season [Friday] night.”
Quilcene (1-0, 4-0) hosts Tacoma Baptist (2-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
