SEQUIM — Sequim became only the third team to score on the Olympic Trojans, but the touchdown pass from Riley Cowan to Gavin Velarde was nowhere near enough for the Wolves in a 48-7 loss.
Still, the seven points are no small feat.
Maybe even a sense of pride?
“Oh, I think a little bit. I think more than that, we would have liked to do more scoring, and I think we could have,” Sequim coach Erik Wiker said after Friday’s game.
“For me as a coach, that’s the frustrating part, because we’ll have — even like that [second-to-]last drive that we go and we fumble it, they still had their starters in, and if we go 14 [points], we score more points than anybody has all season. Then we could say something, I think.”
Olympic took a 29-0 lead into halftime and, after recovering the Wolves’ onside kick attempt, opened the third quarter with a four-play, 42-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Matt Becker to Ethan Goldizen.
Sequim then went on its lone scoring drive, which spanned 70 yards on 14 plays and burned 5 minutes, 33 seconds.
The Trojans made the Wolves earn every yard. Sequim had three running plays lose yards, and other than two catches by Velarde and a big run by Mark Feeney, no other play gained more than 3 yards.
But the Wolves converted when their backs were against the wall.
Cowan threw a short pass to Velarde on third-and-16 near the right sideline. Velarde cut across the field and then went up the left sideline to the Olympic 35-yard line for a gain of 51 yards.
Four plays later on fourth-and-9, Feeney ran the ball 11 yards for a first down.
Then, on fourth-and-8 from the Olympic 10, Velarde made a leaping catch in the end zone for his fifth TD reception of the season, and the 10th TD thrown by Cowan.
The seventh-ranked Trojans (5-0, 8-0) have allowed only 20 points this season.
“Yeah. It’s not satisfying, though,” Cowan said of being only the third team to score on Olympic.
“We know we could do better.”
The Wolves almost added more points in the fourth quarter.
Sequim advanced near the red zone with a pair of 8-yard completions to Ian Dennis and Velarde and a 25-yard run by Feeney.
Cowan found Dennis again, but the ball popped out and, after laying on the ground for a few seconds, was recovered by the Trojans.
Cowan later threw an interception to Olympic’s Mason Quitevis when the Wolves had passed midfield with 1:58 left in the game.
“We had too many miscues to be too happy, even though we did score on them,” Wiker said.
Cowan finished 9 of 23 for 122 yards. Velarde caught five of those passes for 93 yards.
Feeney carried the ball three times, all in the second half, for 39 yards. Arnold Black led Sequim with 40 yards on 11 carries.
Olympic pulled away fairly quickly, scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter and two more in the second.
The Wolves had a chance to prevent the third touchdown when Becker threw a pass to Colton Wade at the goal line.
Sequim’s Noah Christiansen jumped in front of the pass but was unable to corral it, and somehow the ball ended up in Wade’s hands for a TD.
“We pick it in the end zone, they score. That’s the kind of game it was,” Wiker said.
“They got some of the breaks, but they also executed at a high level. They caught balls, they threw balls, they ran.
“That’s probably the best they’ve played all year, I would say.
“And not to have any solace with us against that, I’m just saying they are peaking at the right time, which is good.”
Becker completed all eight passes he threw for 131 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 150 yards and one TD on 10 carries.
Geordyn Shinard had four scores for the Trojans, three rushing and one receiving, and ran for 133 yards on 17 carries.
The Trojans can end North Kitsap’s (5-0, 6-2) two-year Olympic League championship reign when the two teams face off at Silverdale Stadium this Friday.
Sequim (3-2, 5-2) is now slotted into the third-place spot in Olympic League 2A, but views Thursday’s game against Bremerton (2-3, 2-6) as a chance to rebound.
“It’s a really big game,” Cowan said. “It’s a big emotional game — get back on our feet, get better so we can have our heads up for the playoffs.”
That game was moved up a day from Friday because the Wolves will have a pigtail game Tuesday, Nov. 3, against the Seamount League’s third-place team.
The Knights, meanwhile, are battling Kingston for the league’s fourth postseason berth — which only recently opened up when the KingCo League dropped one of its bids — and the teams may need to play a tiebreaker early next week.
Sequim likely will be without its top two defense players, Kane Stoddard and Chris Whitaker.
Stoddard, whom Wiker said is the Wolves’ defensive MVP, it out for the season with a broken collarbone, and Whitaker missed the second half Friday due to what likely was a concussion.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
