COLFAX — In a wild, back-and-forth offensive battle with a total of 15 touchdowns, the Neah Bay football team hung on for dear life in the fourth quarter to outlast Garfield-Palouse 60-54 in the opening round of the State 1B playoffs.
The Red Devils (8-2), the No. 9 seed, will move on to the state quarterfinals to play No. 1 seed DeSales (9-0) next weekend. That game will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Walla Walla, the hometown of DeSales.
Perhaps the long, 450-mile, eight-hour road trip to Colfax had the Red Devils sluggish early as Neah Bay actually got behind early as the Red Devils didn’t have any answers in the first quarter for the Vikings’ offense. Garfield-Palouse scored the first times it held the ball.
“We definitely got a slow start. We’re going to have to have different scheduling for our game this week,” said coach T.J Greene.
Garfield-Palouse scored quickly on a 45-yard pass play on its opening drive, but Neah Bay responded with a 70-yard kickoff return by Jontae Akin. The Vikings then held the ball for 5½ minutes marching down the field to score with 3:54 left in the first quarter to make it 16-6. It was eight minutes into the game and the Red Devils had yet to run a play from scrimmage.
When Neah Bay finally got its hands on the ball, the Red Devils marched down the field themselves with the drive highlighted by a 31-yard run by Tyler Swan. Swan later scored on a 4-yard run.
Garfield-Palouse scored again after a quick drive to open up a lead of 24-14 early in the second quarter. From that point until midway through the fourth quarter, Neah Bay dominated the game, outscoring the Vikings 32-0. One of the reasons Neah Bay turned the game around is Garfield-Palouse gashed the Red Devils three or four times with well-blocked screen passes in the flat.
The Vikings kept trying to run that play, the Red Devils learned to sniff it out and blanket the intended receiver to blow the play up. Greene gave credit to lineman Connor Swan for recognizing that play and calling it out to his teammates not to pursue the Vikings’ quarterback.
“It took us a little bit, but we dialed that play in,” Greene said.
Caleb Cummins started the really with a 33-yard touchdown run to make it 24-22. Garfield-Palouse then turned the ball over on downs with 3:15 left in the half. It was the first time all game the Red Devils had held the Vikings without a score.
Quarterback Kane Greene, who had a monster game, especially in the second half, hit Eugene Ray with a 26-yard pass play to give Neah Bay its first lead of the game at 30-24. That’s how the first half ended.
Cummins had another huge run early in the second half, a 63-yard scamper for a touchdown. Garfield-Palouse drove the ball down to the 16-yard-line but Neah Bay again held on a fourth-down play to get the ball back. Kane Greene immediately took advantage with a huge 81-yard running play down the sideline. While it felt like the Vikings were going to blow out Neah Bay early, the Red Devils now had a 46-24 lead.
Garfield-Palouse scored to get within 46-32, but the Red Devils responded with a 37-yard Greene touchdown run with Swan clearing the way with his lead blocking. Coach Greene said Swan was clutch with his lead blocking not only on Kane Greene’s runs, but Cummins’ long runs as well.
Neah Bay was up 52-32 with 5:30 left to play and seemed to have the game in hand, but the Vikings made it interesting down the stretch, erupting for several big plays.
First, the Vikings scored quickly on a 65-yard run by their quarterback to get within 52-40. Then, disaster struck for the Red Devils as they fumbled at midfield with 4:36 left. Garfield-Palouse took advantage with a 28-yard touchdown pass with 1:24 left to play, now down just one score at 52-48.
“With 5 1/2 minutes left, I think we started to get a little relaxed,” Greene said. “Good thing our offense was still clicking.”
Though the Vikings recovered an onsides kick earlier in the game, they decided to kick the ball away. Swan came up with a huge 20-yard run to get a first down and Greene followed up with his third touchdown run of the half from 46 yards out to give the Red Devils a 60-48 lead with 1:07 left. With the Red Devils defense tired, even that lead didn’t feel safe.
Garfield-Palouse scored one more touchdown at the final gun with a 25-yard pass to make it 60-54. There were 44 total points scored in that wild fourth quarter.
“Now we go from the Idaho border to the Oregon border [for the game in Walla Walla],” Greene said.
DeSales beat Ocosta 56-16 in the first round, while Liberty Christian beat Quilcene 62-7, ending the Rangers’ season with a record of 3-7. Oliver Hopkins had Quilcene’s touchdown on an 11-yard run.
