CLALLAM BAY — Neah Bay’s two-man rushing attack did its job in a 66-0 road win over Clallam Bay.
Cole Svec scored all five times he touched the ball and Chris Martinez gained 184 yards on six carries with two touchdowns as the top-ranked Red Devils won their 21st consecutive game.
Martinez, a senior, began the season as a receiver and end, but he switched to tailback during the first month in order to lighten Svec’s load.
“Cole was getting sore after the games, and so splitting the carries really helps us stay healthy and fresh,” Martinez said after Friday’s win.
“I played end and I stacked up some receiving yards here and there, a couple touchdowns, but running back, that’s what I love to do.”
Martinez had runs of 50, 47, 26, 35 and 23 yards to average more than 30 yards per carry.
“I really got to give it up for my linemen, my fullback, they’re really doing an excellent job staying disciplined and you know, putting in the work to make sure we’re a good team,” Martinez said.
Neah Bay used a slew of big plays to jump out to a 36-0 lead after one quarter.
“We came out really slow. I don’t know why,” Clallam Bay coach Cal Ritter said.
Svec scored three of his five touchdowns in the opening period, a 6-yard run, a 36-yard run and a 52-yard interception return.
Martinez also found the end zone on a 47-yard sprint and quarterback Rwehabura Munyagi Jr. connected with John Reamer for a 54-yard scoring strike.
Svec added a 1-yard touchdown run out of the wildcat formation to put Neah Bay ahead 44-0 and put the running clock into effect early in the second quarter.
Martinez ran in from 26 yards out to give the Red Devils a 50-0 halftime lead.
“I was happy with the execution tonight,” Neah Bay coach Tony McCaulley said.
“It’s hard to tell if we executed properly until we see the film, but we’re hoping we did.”
The Red Devils racked up 291 yards on 17 carries.
The pass offense, though, was a bit off all game, with drops and over thrown passes limiting Munyagi to six completions in 18 attempts for 147 yards.
“We run the ball pretty well, we’re still working on our pass game,” McCaulley said.
“We were hoping to get a little better before playoffs, and it’s coming along, it’s coming along.”
Clallam Bay put forth a valiant effort in the second half, chewing up all but 30 seconds of the third quarter — with help from the running clock, of course — with one drive.
The Bruins drove down to Neah Bay’s 1-yard line before their drive stalled.
“We just couldn’t put it in there,” Ritter said.
After a 30-yard touchdown pass from Munyagi to Cameron Buzzell, Clallam Bay again drove down the field, advancing inside the Neah Bay 30 before Svec picked off a Casey Randall pass and returned it 88 yards to the end zone to conclude the scoring.
The Bruins again reached Neah Bay territory on a long pass from Kyle Keys to Sam Signor before the game clock expired.
At halftime, Ritter implored his team to keep playing for their own honor and to respect the team’s two seniors, Randall and Kelly Gregory.
“I was real with them. I said we’re not going to win, but we can play for our pride,” Ritter said.
“We’ve got two seniors out there who have put it in for five years straight that we owed it to to come out and play two more quarters of football.
“I told them I don’t want to see no face masks touch their chest, you know, I don’t want to see no heads hanging.
“And I was proud of them the second half, they came out and played some football.”
Randall ran 15 times for 69 yards and passed for 62 yards.
Gregory started at center, but also took a handful of snaps at quarterback. He had two carries for 11 yards.
“They’re two of the more fierce competitors I have on the team; definitely, bar none, my two team leaders, and they played with heart,” Ritter said.
“They played with all they had, knowing it was their last home game, I couldn’t have asked for a better performance out of those two, they gave it all they had.”
Clallam Bay (1-3, 4-4) will conclude its season this Saturday afternoon on the road against Tulalip Heritage in a makeup of last month’s game that was postponed due to the shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Neah Bay (5-0, 9-0), meanwhile, will have two weeks before opening the Class 1B state playoffs.
“We’ll scout next week, we’ll practice. We’ll go through our basic practice and conditioning, we’ve been conditioning pretty hard for the last few weeks,” McCaulley said.
“We’ve been through this before with a week off the last couple years, so we kind of have a program that we’ll go through, keep everybody mentally prepared.”
Neah Bay 66, Clallam Bay 0
Neah Bay 36 14 0 16— 66
Clallam Bay 0 0 0 0— 0
First Quarter
NB—Svec 6 run (Winck run)
NB—Reamer 54 pass from Munyagi (Winck pass from Munyagi)
NB—Svec 36 run (Martinez run)
NB—Martinez 47 run (pass failed)
NB—Svec 52 interception return (pass failed)
Second Quarter
NB—Svec 1 run (Munyagi run)
NB—Martinez 26 run (run failed)
Fourth Quarter
NB—Buzzell 30 pass from Munyagi (Munyagi run)
NB—Svec 88 interception return (Reamer pass from Munyagi)
Individual Stats
Rushing— NB: Martinez 6-184, Munyagi 5-31, Svec 3-43, Winck 2-3. CB: Randall 15-69, S. Signor 2-12, Gregory 2-11, Messinger 2-2, Keys 4-(-3), Cummings 2-(-8), Willis 3-(-10).
Passing—NB: 6-18-0, 147. CB: Randall 7-19-2, 62; Keys 1-2-0, 30; Gregory 0-2-0.
Receiving—NB: Buzzell 2-66, Reamer 2-57, Winck 2-23. CB: S. Signor 3-37, Willis 1-30, Keys 3-21, Messinger 1-0.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
