Building up a quick lead and never looking back, the Pe Ell-Willapa Valley football team got back to .500 in a dominant, 48-8 win over Ilwaco in Pe Ell Friday night.
Following tough losses to open the season against Tenino and Adna, the Titans have turned their fortunes around and are back to 3-3 with the meat of their schedule still to come.
“The boys turned it around,” Titans coach Josh Fluke said. “We kept our chins up and are playing some pretty good football. We talked about it, our leaders on our team, they kept everyone up. We had some tough games, we hung in there so we could compete every week and take every week one at a time.”
For the second straight week, the Titans built up a four-score lead after one quarter, and were utterly dominant through four full quarters, allowing just one score late.
Junior Blake Howard of Pe Ell celebrated homecoming night well, rushing for 86 yards to lead the Titan offense, which rushed for 432 yards. Howard also added a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown in the win.
Kolton Fluke was 2 for 2 passing for 40 yards with a touchdown toss to Derek Fluke, and Spud Swogger added a score in the third quarter on a short dive.
The Titans will hope to keep it rolling against the third-ranked 2B football squad in the state in Raymond-South Bend next week on the turn in South Bend, Saturday at 4 p.m.
