By Jordan Goodman For Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — The Forks Spartans lost their homecoming game to Tenino 21-20 when their two-point conversion failed in the third overtime.
The Spartans answered Beavers quarterback Calvin Guzman’s third touchdown run of the game with a short run by quarterback Reece Moody, who was pushed across the goal line by his teammates.
Rather than kick the extra point that, if made, would send the game to a fourth overtime, head coach Mark Feasel and the Spartans decided to try for two and the win.
“We went for it. The kids were behind it,” Feasel said.
But the run was stuffed, and Tenino won after trailing 14-0 early in the second half.
“We knew it was going to be a war,” Feasel said after Friday night’s game.
Forks opened the scoring on Moody’s first touchdown run of the day. Tenino missed a field goal at the end of the first half to give the Spartans a 6-0 lead after two quarters.
Early in the second half, running back Dimitri Sampson broke off an 80-yard touchdown run to extend Forks’ lead to 14-0.
“We didn’t finish it. We’ve got to finish it. We didn’t turn it up the notch we needed,” Feasel said.
Tenino spread the field out in the second half with a passing game that Forks struggled to contain.
“They wore us out. [Our players] played hard and gave it all they had,” Feasel said.
“We had no depth, and that killed us at the end.”
The Beavers got on the board with 4:55 left in the third quarter when Guzman ran it in from 10 yards. He then tied the game up on a 24-yard touchdown with 9:14 left in the fourth quarter.
Forks made it inside the 20-yard line later in the fourth quarter, only to fumble the ball away.
The Spartans struggled offensively in the first two overtime periods, but their defense managed to hold off Tenino until the third overtime when Guzman made a head-first leap into the end zone. Kendall Caldwel kicked the extra point to give the Beavers the 21-20 lead.
Caldwel’s kick would prove to be the game-winning point.
“They played hard. They left everything on the field. They left it all,” Feasel said of his team.
Forks junior running back Miguel Morales was sidelined with an injury and senior running back Nate Gimlin was driven away in an ambulance with a shoulder injury.
Forks will next host defending 1A state champion Montesano. The ninth-ranked Bulldogs are coming off a 47-3 loss to No. 4 Woodland on Friday.
“We need to heal up and get better at what we do. We need to tighten that up,” said Feasel in regard to the Spartans preparations for the Bulldogs.
