PORT ANGELES — The importance football teams place on special teams was underscored in three football games from the weekend.
Forks sophomore placekicker Ethan Bello was a perfect 4 of 4 on field goals and 4 of 5 on point-after touchdown attempts in a 46-20 win over Port Townsend, converting on all four field goals from inside 35 yards. That included hitting two field goals in the fourth quarter last Friday as the Spartans broke open what had been a close game, ending the contest on a 20-0 run.
Bello’s kicks are a boost for a young Forks team, a chance to salvage some points, momentum and confidence out of stalled-out drives deep into its opponents half of the field.
He also converted a 35-yard field goal to provide the only points in the first half of Forks’ season-opening win over Port Angeles.
“Ethan Bello has just done an amazing job for us,” Spartans head coach Trevor Highfield said. “And special teams as a whole, that’s something we decided at the beginning of this year that if we worked hard on it, that it could make an impact for us.
“If you come watch our practices you’ll see a lot of special teams happening and that’s emphasized in a game where we were successful on special teams.
“It’s at least a third of the game, and as you saw [Friday night] it can really turn the tables when executed properly.”
If anybody watched the Washington State-UCLA debacle Saturday night in which the Cougars blew a 49-17 lead only to lose 67-63 — they will have noted two of those Bruins’ scores came via special teams — a 100-yard kick return and a 69-yard punt return.
The Cougars looked unprepared on each special teams play, almost as if they haven’t spent enough time practicing that portion of the game. A couple of better efforts on either of those plays and maybe the worst Coug-it of all time could have been avoided.
And the Seattle Seahawks had their own rash of troubles on special teams in their loss to the New Orleans Saints — most egregiously allowing a punt return TD to open the game in an eventual 33-27 defeat.
The lesson? Ignore special teams at your own peril.
Forks’ buddy system
Football has some of the wildest emotional swings of any prep sport — and riding those waves can be a challenge for some athletes.
In an effort to instill a sense of collective responsibility and trust amongst his young squad, Forks head coach Trevor Highfield has put in a buddy system for his players.
The players were paired up in preseason and will be teamed together for the duration of the season. The system acts as a check on player’s emotions at practices and in games.
“The buddy has to come over, physically touch them and tell them, ‘Good job’ [after a big play] or tell them ‘You got it, you’ll be OK’ [after a mistake], so we keep that sense of positivity in practice and on the field on game day.”
Sometimes kids only hear negative reinforcement from coaches on the sidelines after problems are encountered. Checking in with a peer who cares for you on and off the field and truly has your back through the good and bad of a season seems like a very healthy, grounded way of staying focused and feeling tangible emotional support in an emotional activity.
Football is family
Sportsmanship was on full display in Neah Bay’s 60-39 win over Quilcene during and after Saturday’s game.
The two squads played an entertaining, exciting eight-man football contest with no penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct then went through the post-game ritual of shaking hands at midfield.
Then the two squads came together for a huddle at midfield that was broken up a combined call-and-response chant of “Football family” before the teams headed to the locker rooms.
And before making the long drive back to Neah Bay, the Red Devils and Rangers sat down together for a spaghetti feed in the Quilcene cafeteria — a nice gesture by the Rangers and a response to Neah Bay’s ever-present hospitality to visiting teams that make the trek for contests.
The Red Devils did the same thing for Quilcene last season when the two squads met out west. And Neah Bay has put on post-game meals after basketball games against other North Olympic Peninsula teams such as Sequim and Port Townsend.
“We wanted to get Neah Bay on the schedule because they play the game the right way and they play it well,” Quilcene head coach Trey Beathard said. “And they are good, too, so we wanted that challenge for our kids. And both times we’ve played them they play hard, they play tough and they play cleanly. I have a ton of respect for how they play the game and how they treat their opponents. They put on a spread for us after we beat them last year, so it was an easy call to do something for them this year.”
Breakout stars
For the Port Angeles Roughriders, a couple of newcomers were in the limelight.
Daniel Cable has speed, a lot of it. The Riders did well when Cable was able to turn the corner off either the left or right edge. He gained 86 yards on 12 carries using his outside speed and gained another 60 yards on two kick returns.
Look for the Riders to get the ball in Cable’s hands as much as possible from here on out.
Also making his debut for the Riders was Brady Nickerson at quarterback. Nickerson was fearless, threading the needle twice through heavy traffic, first on a touchdown to Tyler Bowen and next on a two-point conversion to Bowen. Somehow, we’re still not quite sure how, Bowen came up with the ball both times. He appears to have hands of glue. When the ball went to Bowen and Cable, good things were happening for the Riders.
We also learned that the Riders are not afraid to throw the ball as Nickerson put the ball up 25 times. Port Angeles has some really tall receivers in Lucas Jarnigan and Derek Bowechop and the Riders like to put it up and let these two get after the ball.
Sequim’s defensive battle
We learned that Sequim and North Kitsap continue to be powerhouses of the Olympic League 2A Division as they had a back-and-forth defensive struggle won by North Kitsap 16-8. The Wolves had some chances to tie the game but could never quite get the big play.
The Vikings scored 28 points in their previous game, while Sequim scored 42 against Washington and 27 against Forks. So, we learned that both of these teams can definitely play defense. While North Kitsap got a bit of revenge over last year’s loss to the Wolves in Sequim, the real power in the Olympic League 2A Division this year might be Olympic. The Trojans beat 3A Bainbridge (who beat North Kitsap) 38-21 and North Mason 46-6. The Bulldogs came in to that game undefeated, having outscored their opponents 60-6.
Yikes. Watch out for Olympic this year.
