BREMERTON — Beating Bremerton remains a roadblock for the Sequim football team.
The Wolves fell 27-20 to the Knights on Thursday and fall out of the postseason picture due to point differential.
Sequim, Kingston and Bremerton all tied for third in the Olympic League 2A, but with district play-in games scheduled Tuesday there was no time for a three-team tiebreaker and the point differential tiebreaker was invoked.
Kingston earned its district spot with a 45-21 triumph over Port Angeles on Thursday.
It was the fourth straight setback to Bremerton for Sequim (3-3, 5-3), and third consecutive close loss.
Two years ago, Sequim’s attempt at reversing a 35-0 halftime deficit was stopped just short in a 41-35 defeat.
Last year, the Knights’ 14-13 win pushed the Wolves into a three-team tiebreaker for the last Olympic League 2A playoff berth.
With Thursday’s game tied 20-20 and under a minute to go, Bremerton struck again.
Quarterback Savante Perrigo took the third-and-5 snap and opened up for what should have been a handoff to a running back.
Problem was, no running backs were in the backfield and Perrigo was forced to improvise, running through the Sequim defense for the game-winning TD from 34 yards out.
“Basically, it was a broken play where he went to handoff to his backs and nobody was there,” Wolves coach Erik Wiker said Saturday.
“I just watched it on film this morning.
“Our guys went after the running backs, two of our guys ran into each other, and he ran into the end zone.
“We didn’t tackle and he ran hard.”
It was a bummer of a finish for a Sequim team that had been playing well.
“It was a tough ending,” Wiker said.
“Our O-line was doing great, some of the best blocking of the year, our running backs were going hard and following their blocks.”
Senior Mark Feeney rushed 20 times for 118 yards and classmate Arnold Black added 13 carries for 66 yards.
“The passing game was very good for us and got us out of some jams, and we had another great all-around game from Gavin [Velarde], rushing, receiving and in the return game.”
Velarde caught 10 passes for 156 yards and had 45 running yards on eight carries.
He also returned the opening kick 57 yards to give Sequim good field position
Wiker said he hoped his team’s large senior class would be remembered for helping turn the program back around.
“This group of seniors has gone from playing as sophomores on an 0-10 team to within seconds of the playoffs,” Wiker said.
“They’ve definitely helped the program improve.”
Velarde, the team’s best playmaker, will be a junior next season, and quarterback Riley Cowan will be a sophomore.
“We have some other young talent, some hard workers like Kyler Rollness, Tyler Conn and Keeshawn Whitney, and our two guards, James Thayer and Brenden Lauritzen, will be seniors.
“We do lose a lot of guys, but we have more coming back than we have had in some other seasons.”
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Compiled using coaches’ reports.
Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
