PORT ANGELES — A lack of offensive execution, penalties and an inability to prevent big plays on defense on third and fourth downs spelled trouble for Port Angeles in a ragged 27-14 nonleague loss to the Black Hills Wolves.
The Roughriders started strong Friday at Civic Field, forcing a stop when Black Hills went for it on fourth-down-and-5 from its own 45-yard line.
Port Angeles moved the ball down to the 18, but the offense stagnated and a Miki Andrus halfback pass was intercepted on fourth down.
“I think we may have come out a little too confident and expecting too much,” Port Angeles quarterback Ryan Rodocker said.
The Wolves went ahead when Gabe Adamson hauled in a 20-yard corner route to the right sideline of the end zone from quarterback Jaydon Troy with 10:50 to go in the second quarter.
“When we got down there in the second quarter, we just kind of kept on dragging,” Rodocker said.
“I still wanted to win, but it seemed like some of us were just out of it.”
Troy’s toss came on third-and-16, the second long third-down conversion the Port Angeles defense surrendered on Black Hills’ 10-play, 72-yard drive.
It was the first of four touchdown passes for Troy, who finished the night an efficient 12 of 20 with 230 yards and no interceptions.
He later led the Wolves downfield in the final 1:44 of the first half, but Black Hill’s Drew Kimmel missed a 32-yard field goal as time expired.
The Riders mustered just 41 yards on offense in the first half, 39 of them coming on 22 rush attempts.
“We didn’t come out very well and weren’t staying with it, we needed a little more effort and a little bit more of everything all the way around,” Port Angeles coach Tom Wahl said.
The halftime message was pretty direct.
“It was nothing complicated at all,” Wahl said.
“We just challenged them, told them things weren’t as complicated as they appeared and we needed to stay with our blocks, keep our heads up and show more effort, and they came out and did that and that helped.”
The pep talk worked to start the second half, as Port Angeles put together a 15-play, 69-yard drive to open the third quarter by chewing up 7:32 of clock.
Rodocker, who threw just two passes in the first half, found Kellen Landry on consecutive pass plays of 6 and 19 yards to get the Riders out of a second-and-22 situation and into the red zone.
Four plays later, Rodocker pushed across on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to cap the drive and tie the score at 7-apiece.
The tie was short lived, however, as Black Hills’ Jordan March returned the ensuing kickoff 42 yards into Port Angeles territory.
Troy found Adamson again, this time on a crossing route into the middle of the end zone for a 34-yard TD.
Rodocker did find Angevine for a 32-yard screen pass down the right sideline on a second-and-30 play on the Riders’ next possession, but the drive stalled at midfield.
Black Hills committed back-to-back delay of game penalties to force a third-and-11 from its own 16, but Troy found Alex Romero along the left sideline in between the Port Angeles zone coverage for an 84-yard catch and run touchdown.
That score put the Wolves up 21-7 with 10:54 to play.
Black Hills added its final touchdown when Troy rolled right and found Tyler Gatterman for a 15-yard TD on fourth-and-6 and a 27-7 lead.
“We were pretty pleased with our defense,” Wahl said.
Port Angeles did hold the Wolves to just 47 yards rushing on 19 carries and showed better tackling than in last week’s loss to Olympic.
“It wasn’t until later in the game that they put that run of points on the board,” Wahl said. “It was mostly about our offense not executing.”
With the game basically decided, Rodocker led Port Angeles down the field, finding Taylor Millsap and Andrus for gains of 22 and 30 yards, and the Riders scored again on a 2-yard plunge from Andrus with 16 seconds left.
Rodocker ended up 6 of 9 passing for 108 yards.
Angevine was held back all game long, totaling 26 rushes for 47 yards. Andrus didn’t fare much better with 11 carries for 29 yards.
“We just need to do a better job all-around,” Rodocker said. “It’s just plain and simple. This effort won’t cut it.”
The Riders (1-2, 3-3) remain in the hunt for one of the Olympic League’s four playoff seeds.
They’ll host archrival Sequim (2-1, 4-2) at Civic Field at 7 p.m. this Friday.
Rodocker did outline one saving grace from this listless loss.
“Black Hills runs a similar style of offense [as Sequim} so this will help us know what we need to prepare for.”
Black Hills 27, Port Angeles 14
Black Hills 0 7 7 13— 27
Port Angeles 0 0 7 7— 14
Second Quarter
BH—Adamson 20 pass from Troy (Kimmel kick) 10:50
Third Quarter
PA—Rodocker 1 rush (Beck kick) 4:28
BH—Adamson 34 pass from Troy (Kimmel kick) 3:22
Fourth Quarter
BH—Romero 84 pass from Troy (Kimmel kick) 10:54
BH—Gatterman 15 pass from Troy (pass no good) 6:04
PA—Andrus 2 rush (Beck kick) :16
Individual Stats
Rushing— PA: Angevine 26-47, Andrus 11-29, Landry 5-21, Coronel 1-2, Rodocker 1-1, Burton 1-0, Lausche 0-1. BH: Troy 10-26, Berndson 5-17, March 2-4, Kramer 2-0.
Passing—PA: Rodocker 6-9, 108; Andrus 0-1-1, 0; Angevine 1-1, -3. BH: Troy 12-20, 230.
Receiving—PA: Angevine 2-34, Andrus 2-27, Landry 2-25, Millsap 1-22. BH: Romero 1-84, Gatterman 4-62, Adamson 2-54, Kramer 3-16, Mashek 1-9, Berndson 1-5.
