NEAH BAY — One of the challenges of living and playing sports in Neah Bay is the long road trips the athletes must take from the extreme westernmost point in Washington, especially in the postseason.
That being said, this season might be a two-game record for the Red Devils. After traveling 457 miles and eight-plus hours to Colfax, only a handful of miles from Idaho, to play in the state football playoff opener, the Neah Bay Red Devils will be making an even longer trip this weekend.
This time, it will be another eight-hour trip and about 459 miles to near the Oregon border in Walla Walla to play DeSales. Counting the return trips to Neah Bay, that’s 1,832 miles of travel in just over a week.
Not only is it a long bus drive, DeSales (9-0) is the No. 1 seed in the 1B state playoffs. The game will be held at 1 p.m. and should be available on the NFHS Network.
Neah Bay (8-2), the No. 9 seed, earned the right to play DeSales by beating Garfield-Palouse 60-54 in a wild shootout as the Red Devils had 475 yards of offense and the two teams combined for 15 touchdowns. Garfield-Palouse got up early 24-14, but Neah Bay roared back with 32 straight points to take a 46-24 lead.
After Neah Bay scored on a 37-yard Kane Greene touchdown run with 5:27 left in the game to make it 52-32, it appeared Neah Bay had the game in hand, but Garfield-Palouse scored 16 points in four minutes to make it 52-48 with 1:30 left in the fourth quarter. Greene scored on another 46-yard touchdown run to salt the game away. Garfield-Palouse scored a final touchdown as time expired.
Greene finished the game with eight rushes for 195 yards and three touchdowns, which also included an 81-yard run in the first half. Greene also threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Eugene Ray. Caleb Cummins ran 11 times for 179 yards with touchdown runs of 63 and 33 yards. Tyler Swan ran eight times for 77 yards and a touchdown, while also being the lead blocker for several of Cummins’ and Greene’s big runs.
Jontae Akin also had a 70-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Ray led the team with 18 tackles, four tackles for loss and three quarterback sacks, while Joseph Smith had 17 tackles and Cummins 16.
Also this weekend, Quilcene played the No. 2 seed Liberty Christian in the state playoffs, losing 62-7.
Quilcene made it to state by upsetting Northwest Christian in the district playoffs 40-34 as one of the highlights of the Rangers’ season, which ended with a record of 3-7.
Coach Darrin Dotson thanked his wife for her support this season and said the low turnout of players for the Rangers was a challenge.
“At times, we were outnumbered two to one and in our final game three to one,” Dotson said. “We beat every opponent that had a similar size roster. I told my team that we are the best 14-man roster.”
“I was fortunate to have the student-athletes we rostered,” Dotson said. “My coaching staff and I made the best of a mixture of seasoned football players and brand new football players by playing a shell game every week looking to take advantage of our personnel placement.”
