PORT ANGELES — Let’s hope Saturday night’s dance went better for the Port Angeles Roughriders than Friday’s homecoming football game.
The Riders again made things difficult for themselves by making it easy on their opponents in a 55-6 thrashing at the hands of the Olympic Trojans at Civic Field on Friday.
Olympic scored twice off Port Angeles turnovers — the Riders combined to throw four interceptions and fumbled once on the night.
Port Angeles head coach Troy Mann had few words for his team in the Riders’ traditional post-game meeting — beyond instructing his charges to quickly board the bus back to the high school.
And he declined to discuss the game with the Peninsula Daily News after the game.
It was that difficult of an evening and that ugly of an outcome.
Olympic quickly took control of the game, chewing up big chunks of yardage through the air on the game’s opening drive. The Trojans moved the ball 93 yards on seven plays, capped by a Zeke Gillick’s 42-yard touchdown pass to Darrelle White.
Olympic forced a Port Angeles punt, but the Trojans muffed the catch, recovering the ball in their own endzone for what Riders’ players and coaches believed to be a safety.
But in high school football, a kicked ball remains a kick until a player gains possession of the ball, so the play was ruled a touchback and Port Angeles missed out on a potentially momentum-swinging turn of events early.
Olympic took advantage, moving the ball at will with running backs Malcom Dewalt (speed to the outside) and Cameron Bailey (runs up the middle), before Gillick hit Adam Johnson in stride up the right sideline for a 40-yard TD pass.
Gillick at that point was 5 for 5 for 115 yards passing and the two scores, exploiting a Riders’ secondary without ball-hawking defender Derek Bowechop due to an injury.
And that score effectively ended the competitive portion of the contest.
Dewalt added short TD runs to pad the Trojans’ lead to 28-0 with a minute to go before halftime.
And Olympic scored again on one of the strangest plays of the season just ahead of the break.
Port Angeles quarterback Brenden Roloson-Hines was chased and dumped a short pass to running back Trevor Shumway. Shumway ran with the ball behind the Riders’ line of scrimmage and pitched the ball forward — not allowed once the ball already has been thrown once — straight into the arms of an on-rushing White.
White collected the ball and raced in for an interception return touchdown — the Trojans choosing to decline the illegal forward pass penalty.
Things didn’t pick up after the break for the Riders.
Roloson-Hines was unable to gather a high snap and the ball bounced into the hands of Olympic’s Trent Feistner who returned the fumble for a 10-yard TD to trigger the 40-point running clock.
Shumway snapped the shutout for Port Angeles when he jumped a pass and outran the Trojans for an 80-yard interception return late in the fourth quarter.
The Riders (1-1, 1-4) visit Bremerton (1-1, 2-3) on Friday. The Knights edged North Mason 28-27 on Friday.
Olympic 55, Port Angeles 6
Olympic 14 21 13 7— 55
Port Angeles 0 0 0 6— 6
First Quarter
O—White 42 pass from Gillick (Kennedy kick)
O—Johnson 40 pass from Gillick (Kennedy kick)
Second Quarter
O—Dewalt 4 run (Kennedy kick)
O—Dewalt 3 run (Kennedy kick)
O—White 35 interception return (Kennedy kick)
Third Quarter
O—Feistner 10 fumble return (kick blocked)
O—Bailey 7 run (Kennedy kick)
Fourth Quarter
O—Feistner 5 run (Kennedy kick)
PA—Shumway 80 interception return (kick failed)
Individual Stats
Rushing—O: Dewald 9-65; Bailey 7-38; Gillick 5-17; Feistner 3-13; Frilles 1-3, Talarico 2-1; Guadiz-Macadangdang Boschee-Perry 1-(-7). PA: Leis 4-29; Shumway 4-11; Bailey 2-(-3); Edwards 1-(-4); Drake 2-(-13); Roloson-Hines 11-(-33).
Passing—O: Gillick 10-15-1, 161, 2 TD; Boschee-Perry 1-2-1, 10. PA: Rolson-Hines 9-19-2, 79; Shumway 0-1-1; Drake 0-1-1.
Receiving—O: White 3-74, Johnson 2-47; Dewalt 2-21, Quitevis 1-10; Caswell 1-10; Andrews 1-4; PA: Bowen 3-47; Edwards 4-30; Shumway 1-2.
