PORT ANGELES — Much about Port Angeles’ season-ending 45-21 loss to Kingston embodied the Roughriders’ 2015 season.
There was the pick-6 a few plays after the Riders recovered a fumble on Kingston’s first play from scrimmage.
Or the Buccaneers’ three one-play scoring drives, including two touchdown passes in the second half when Port Angeles’ defense was smothering the run.
For the Riders, it seemed that if it wasn’t one thing it was another — this season, and in Thursday night’s loss to Kingston at Civic Field.
That’s how it goes for a 1-8 team that finishes at the bottom of Olympic League 2A with an 0-6 record.
But perhaps the best representation of this season was that the Riders put up their highest Olympic League scoring output in the final game of the season, and that after falling behind 24-7 at halftime, they scored 14 points and played one of their best halves of the season in the second half.
“We played well,” Rodocker said of Thursday’s loss.
“Every single game, it’s just been, like, one thing goes wrong on one play and then it’s just over.
“It’s been rough, but no one can ever say that we don’t put in 100 percent effort all four quarters.
“I mean, you know, it just didn’t go our way this year.”
The Riders could have thrown in the towel at halftime. Or before the game even started. Or at any time in the past month when they only scored 12 points total in their first four October games and ended the season on a seven-game losing streak.
Instead, they kept coming and finished with 21 points, their highest second-highest output of the season and highest since their 27-18 win over Vashon on Sept. 11.
They outgained an opponent for the first time this season, 345 yards to 325. They also had more first downs, 15-14, than Kingston.
“It was maybe one of our better games, I would think,” first-year Port Angeles coach Bret Curtis said.
It was Port Angeles’ best offensive game, for sure.
The 345 yards total was the most this season by nearly 100 yards. The 15 first downs and the six third-down conversions also were a season-highs.
The 183 yards passing were the most in 2015. Junior Tyrus Beckett, making his third start at quarterback, surpassed the century mark for the first time in his career, completing 6 of 13 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Rodocker, a senior who spent most of the season as the starting quarterback, had the other 73 yards on a fourth-quarter halfback pass, a bomb to Joe Danz that moved the Riders 2 yards away from their second touchdown.
It was Rodocker’s only throw of the game, and the last of his high school career.
“I pulled myself after that because I couldn’t end on a better note than that,” Rodocker said.
Kellen Landry finished the two-play drive on the next play with a 2-yard run, the second of his three touchdowns.
Later in the quarter, he turned a wheel route into a 50-yard touchdown reception.
Landry ran 17 times for 96 yards and caught four passes for 84 yards.
He finishes the season as Port Angeles’ leading rusher (513 yards) and receiver (22 catches for 204 yards). He also scored five of the team’s 12 touchdowns this season — two in the win over Vashon and three Thursday night.
“That’s a good way for me to end on an individual note for my high school career,” Landry said.
Landry’s first score was a 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that capped a 15-play, 80-yard drive that spanned 8 minutes, 36 seconds, and cut the score to 14-7.
But on Kingston’s next play from scrimmage, Alex Barrett ran 59 yards for a TD to reclaim the Buccaneers’ two-score lead.
Barrett finished with nine carries for 103 yards. Most of that came before halftime. In the second half, when the Riders did much better at containing the run, Barrett had only 9 yards on four carries.
The Buccaneers, though, found holes in Port Angeles’ pass defense in the second half, especially when they were given short fields.
Max English threw TDs on consecutive plays after the Riders turned the ball over to extend Kingston’s lead to 38-7 in the third quarter.
“They found a seam there and they were able to hit a couple of those passes, and we didn’t have an answer for them,” Curtis said.
“Our defense looked the best we have yet. It wasn’t good enough to win, but better than we’ve seen recently — let’s put it that way.”
The first score of the game came on a turnover.
The Buccaneers had the ball first, and on their first play from scrimmage, English connected with Tanner Draper for a 33-yard gain. But Draper fumbled and Port Angeles recovered.
Three plays later, though, Beckett threw an interception that Kingston’s Russell Johnson returned 39 yards for an touchdown.
It was the first of five turnovers in the game for Port Angeles.
Soon after a three-and-out by the Riders, Kingston made it 14-0 on a 5-yard run by Barrett, and, except for the short moments when the score was 14-7, the Buccaneers kept a two-score cushion the remainder of the game.
The win, combined with Sequim’s 27-20 loss to Bremerton on Thursday secures a postseason berth for the Buccaneers (3-3, 3-6).
For Port Angeles, the season comes to an end. The Riders have elected to not play a crossover game later this week.
“It’s not the way we wanted to go out, as seniors, but I had fun,” Landry said of Thursday’s loss.
“And I know we played our hearts out every game.”
The season was rough from the start. Port Angeles opened with a 49-0 loss at Port Townsend. In that game, the Riders made one first down and rushed for minus-34 yards.
They followed that with three home games — the win over Vashon and losses to North Mason (20-14) and Bremerton (23-7).
Then they went on the road for four straight games for the toughest stretch of the season. As injuries mounted, so did the blowout losses: 47-0 to Olympic, 41-0 to Black Hills, 49-6 to Sequim and 47-6 to North Kitsap.
“At one point, and this is not an excuse, but at one point, we counted nine starters we had that we were missing,” Curtis said.
“We just didn’t have the depth that you need when you have guys going down like that. That’s a lot of guys to try to replace.”
The Riders’ depth will be challenged again in 2016 with so many seniors graduating, but the upside to the injuries is the playing time it gave to younger players, such as Rudy Valdez and Garrett Edwards.
Still, it will be hard to replace the likes of Landry, Rodocker, Danz, Jacob Kennedy, Paul VanRossen, Branden Currie, Caleb West, Billy Minks, Isaiah Nichols, Jace Bohman, Taylor Millsap, Ryan Beck — and that’s not even the entire senior class — on and off the field.
“They were the heart and soul of the team,” Beckett said.
“In my opinion, I think they were everything. They led the team from the beginning of the season to the very end. They wanted it bad.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
