WINLOCK — Pe Ell-Willapa Valley, per The Chronicle’s preseason coaches poll, is regarded as the favorite to win the Central 2B League, meaning the Titans have obviously caught the attention of their peers.
On Friday night the Titans caught the attention of Winlock, and announced their salutations to the rest of the league with a 50-0 win.
Winlock coach Ben Suhrbier, who did not enjoy his first impressions in the ‘SEC of the 2Bs,’ lauded his opponents’ efforts and prospects after the game.
“The poll says they're supposed to win league,” noted Suhrbier, in his first year with Winlock. “If I was being honest, I'd say that's not the team I would pick to play in week 1.”
The Titans did not take long to unleash their rude welcoming.
With 9:45 left in the first quarter, PWV's Trevor Cook took a handoff and jetted 80 yards for a touchdown. That burst came just one play after the gassed Cook had a 65-yard run nullified by a holding penalty.
One kickoff, three futile runs and a punt later the Titans held the ball at their own 44-yard line. Seth Flemetis ran for 15 yards on the first play of the drive, and then Winlock fortified its defense to hold the Titans to just six yards on the next three plays. Facing fourth down and four yards to go from the Winlock 35-yard line, PWV elected to go for it. While the big boys up front snorted and pushed, Kaelin Jurek churned up 35 yards en route to a touchdown.
On the next Titan drive, with 35 seconds left in the first frame of the season, Flemetis notched a 10-yard touchdown run, and on the following drive quarterback Jason Fluke found Jurek open in the back of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown pass.
The second quarter was just as gracious to PWV, and equally brutal to Winlock.
Jurek burst through a big hole in the line to claim a 65-yard touchdown. On the following drive Flemetis scorched 50 yards for a touchdown. Again, the score came on the first play of the possession.
With 4:42 left in the half, Tyler Justice took his first handoff of the day for the Titans and promptly scampered 30-yards for a score, pushing the Titans’ tally to 48-0.
“The O-line did outstanding tonight,” said PWV coach Josh Fluke. “For their size they've really got some speed, too.”
Fluke specifically noted the tenacious play of linemen Brendyn Graves, Dalton Toepelt, Josh Prestegord and Tyler Shepherd.
In total the Titans ran the ball for 400 yards and six touchdowns.
Of course, PWV balanced their offensive onslaught by blanking the birds of Winlock on the scoreboard.
Granted, Winlock starting quarterback Zach Weinert was out with a knee injury, forcing regular running back Sean Berry into emergency signal caller duty, but the feat was no less impressive.
Fluke and Jurek led the Titans with 10 tackles each and held Winlock to just 32 yards of offense.
For the Cardinals, Derek Chilcoate racked up 48 yards for Winlock and Seth Lindsey added 38 yards on just four carries.
“We started out really well on the first couple of series, and then we lost it,” noted Suhrbier. “If we can play like that and sustain it, we'll be alright.
Fluke reiterated that the Titans plan to use their two headed monster of Aidan Arrington and Jason Fluke at quarterback, “just like we did last year. Usually the other one is out at receiver when he's not playing quarterback.”
Multiplying that threat is the three-headed running beast of Jurek, Cook and Flemetis. “We use all three of them,” noted Fluke. “We try to spread it out so that they can't focus on just one.”
For a night the Titans may have met their own expectations. Now all that's left is to live up to the expectations of everyone else.
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley will play at defending league champion Napavine on Friday. Winlock will play Morton-White Pass in Randle.
Indians Get Past MWP, 30-7
By The Chronicle
TOLEDO — It took Toledo a little while to shake off the first-game rust, but once the Indians got rolling they looked every bit of the state semifinalist they were last season in a 30-7 Central 2B League football win over Morton-White Pass.
“I liked how we finished the game,” Toledo coach Jeremy Thibault said. “It was one of those first-game things where we kind of hurt ourselves in the first half.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Toledo took at 14-0 halftime lead thanks to Dalton Yoder’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Dakota Robins, and a 22-yard scoring run by Taylor Hicks. Yoder would complete 11 of 17 passes for 105 yards, while Robins finished with 56 yards rushing and three catches for 36 yards.
“Dakota was probably one of the better players on the field tonight,” Thibault said. “He made a ton of plays.”
Morton-White Pass found their first touchdown of the year on a 41-yard touchdown pass from freshman QB Kaleb Rashoff to Matt Poquette, but that would be their only trip to paydirt. They finished with 95 yards of total offense.
Toledo’s second half scoring included a six-yard run by Dylan Hoiseck in the third quarter. Andreas Malunat knocked in a 24-yard field goal and Hicks ran it in from six yards out to round out the scoring. Last year’s All-Area MVP Hicks ran for 131 yards on the evening.
Thibault added that Yoder would have had roughly 90 yards of rushing on the ground had his bootlegs not been called back on penalties.
Kolton Korpi and Brody Rice each had interceptions for the Indians, while Thibault also liked the cornerback play he got from Wes Kuzminsky and Alex Bacon.
“I thought our defense played great tonight,” the coach said. “We had a lot of juniors and sophomores that played well that had never played football before.”
Toledo (1-0) plays at Pe Ell-Willapa Valley next week while Morton-White Pass (0-1) hosts Winlock.
Pirates Erupt Late to Topple Loggers in League Opener
ADNA — The Adna Pirates were in trouble going into the latter half of the fourth quarter, but found a way to explode to the end zone via senior quarterback David Young to seal a 21-8 win over the Onalaska Loggers in the opening night of Central 2B League football action here on Friday.
Business took a dark turn early for the Pirates. A bad pitch became even more unfortunate when Adna took control of the ball in their own end zone, running it out of bounds to put the Loggers on the board with a safety.
To make matters worse, starters Blaine Latimer, Bryce McCloskey and Tyler Olson all sustained injuries in the first quarter. Adna managed to bounce back, scoring in the second quarter on a 53-yard pass from Young to Isaac Ingle for a 7-2 lead.
The Loggers responded on the ground, charging for 329 total rushing yards and 17 first downs. At the head of the pack was Stone Whitney, a senior that ran for 236 yards on a remarkable 46 carries.
"They just kept pounding him (Whitney) at us and getting a first down," Adna coach K.C. Johnson said. "We didn't play very well up front and honestly I haven't seen that many carries in a long time. Bottom line, they came to play physical, hard-nosed football."
The Loggers regained the lead in the final frame, punching a score in with a 2-yard run from Ernie Roque before failing to convert for 2 more points.
Meanwhile, Young began to feel the urgency and went to work, reading the defense and scoring on a 44-yard run only to follow it up with another touchdown on a 24-yard run on the next drive.
Young ended the night with 108 rushing yards on eight carries and 56 passing yards on 3 for 5 completions. Ingle added 93 yards on the ground on 14 carries.
"I'm very proud of us for handling the adversity," Johnson said. "We settled in and found things that would work in different sets, but my hat really goes off to Onalaska's coaching staff and their kids. We've got some work to do."
The Pirates (1-0) will host Toutle Lake and the Loggers (0-1) will travel to Mossyrock on Friday.
