RENTON — The area prep football playoff season is off and running with Forks winning a three-way league tiebreaker to advance Monday night and Port Angeles preparing for a loser-out pigtail game tonight.
The Roughriders will be looking to snap their three-game losing streak and reverse their misfortune of injuries in a do-or-die playoff game tonight against Renton High School at Renton Memorial Stadium, 405 Logan Ave. N.
The Roughriders (4-3 in Olympic League, 6-3 overall) will take on Renton (3-3 Seamount League, 4-5 overall) at 7.
The winner advances to the Class 2A preliminary state round Saturday.
Port Angeles coach Tom Wahl has been watching film of Renton for the past two days.
The Indians will show the spread when they plan to pass but they like to run first with a two-back backfield, Wahl said.
“Their quarterback has good mobility and their tailback looks pretty good.”
The running back is quick and will need to be contained, the coach said.
“If you let him out in space, he can really cause problems,” Wahl added.
The defense, meanwhile, uses an unusual 3-5 formation.
“They’re stacking up their ’backers behind their three defensive linemen,” Wahl said.
And where it gets a little strange is with the two defensive ends, who play a hybrid position where they can play defensive end, linebacker or cornerback.
They are cornerback-size and they can come forward to pressure the quarterback or move back to defend against the pass as corners.
“It shows the versatility of their defense,” Wahl said.
The Riders, meanwhile, will continue to shift players around because of injuries.
All-league quarterback Keenen Walker, with a cast on his broken right arm, will start at running back for the second-straight game, and sophomore Larsson Chapman will continue his learning-by-fire stint at quarterback.
“He’s doing all right,” Wahl said about the 6-foot-2, 165-pound sophomore.
Part of the offensive game plan, though, is to get the ball to Walker as much as possible to see if good things happen with the ball in the standout athlete’s hands.
“Keenen got outside once [against Sequim last week] and showed some pretty good speed,” Wahl said.
Walker still is trying to get used to playing with the cast on, Wahl said.
“It adds a couple of more pounds, which makes it awkward when he’s running.
“It makes catching a challenge, too.”
But the good news is that Walker can still get on the field.
The Riders also received more good news this week with the return of Skyler Gray and Nick Ioffrida, starters who both missed the game against Sequim on Friday night.
“It’s nice having them back in the lineup,” Wahl said.
Gray will help as a wide receiver but his real value is on defense, Wahl said.
“Skyler is a third-year all-league cornerback.”
Ioffrida, meanwhile, is one of the best offensive and defensive lineman on the team.
The Riders, though, still will be short-handed without standout athlete Cameron Braithwaite, who went out with a season-ending injury recently.
Port Angeles also lost Zach Ennis to a knee injury in the Sequim game.
Forks wins tiebreaker
ABERDEEN — The Spartans won a three-way Kansas Plan tiebreaker with Southwest Washington League-Evergreen Division rivals Elma and Rainier on Monday night to keep the spooks away.
Rainier beat Elma 8-0 to open the round-robin play but the Spartans defeated Rainier 7-0 after the two teams tied 0-0 in their first mini-game.
Forks then turned right around and completed a sweep by beating Elma 6-0. Elma went first but didn’t score, so the Spartans didn’t have to kick an extra point.
Spartan running back Shane WhiteEagle scored the clinching touchdown on a 6-yard run.
The three teams had tied for fourth place in league with 3-4 records.
Forks, 3-6 overall, will visit Toledo in a winner-to-state, loser-out district battle this weekend.
Elma ended its campaign plagued by midseason suspensions with a 4-5 record.
Forks needed two tiebreaker periods to beat Rainier.
Going first, the Mountaineers were held on downs when a pass went incomplete.
It looked like the Spartans were going to get the win on the first play when WhiteEagle broke loose but he fumbled on the 2-yard line and Rainier recovered.
Forks got the ball back first on the next set of downs and scored on a 16-yard pass from Brady Castellano pass to Brett Pederson.
The ball was tipped in the end zone, but Pederson was able to gather the ball in before it hit the ground. Crecencio Uzueta added the extra point.
The Spartans then held the Mountaineers out of the end zone for the win.
Faced with a must-win situation, the Eagles had the ball first against Forks but couldn’t score after gaining a first down.
WhiteEagle then took care of business. His first run went to the 6-yard line and he scored on the next play.
Girls Soccer
PA in pigtail
KINGSTON — The Roughriders will host Steilacoom in a Class 2A loser-out subdistrict pigtail game on the artificial turf at Kingston High School on Wednesday night.
The action starts at 7.
“Our ultimate goal is to win at least two more games and get to the state tournament,” Port Angeles coach Scott Moseley said.
“Our goal from the beginning was to be playing in November.”
The Riders (3-2-3 in Olympic League and 7-5-4 overall), the No. 3 2A team in the Olympic League, will take on the No. 6 squad from the South Puget Sound League.
Don’t let Steilacoom’s sixth-place finish put you to sleep, Moseley warned.
“They play in a very difficult league,” Moseley said about the Sentinels. “You can’t let their record fool you.”
Moseley said he doesn’t know much about the Sentinels except that they play in a tough league and he is expecting a good game from them.
The Riders are excited about the playoff game, Moseley said.
“We’re looking forward to playing a team we have never played before.”
Port Angeles has had a week off since playing last Tuesday and has been nursing a few late-season injuries.
“We’re getting healthy,” Moseley said. “We’re a little banged up with end-of-season stuff, sore ankles but we’ll be OK.”
Wednesday’s winner advances to the West Central District tournament with a loser-out game with the South Puget Sound No. 2 team at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Renton.