QUILCENE — Quilcene free safety Eli Harrison swooped in for a 35-yard interception return for touchdown on the game’s opening play as the Rangers rolled the Loggers 60-14.
The pick-six was the first of three first-quarter interceptions for Harrison and five first-half pickoffs by Quilcene.
“Eli works really hard as our QB and free safety,” said Rangers (3-1) coach Byron Wilson.
“His key [on defense] is he watches the quarterback, and where the QB looks he breaks to the ball.
“He jumped it, picked it off and took it back.”
Crescent’s (2-2) three early turnovers all came in Loggers territory, gifting short fields to the Quilcene offense.
The Rangers took advantage, scoring on a 21-yard rush from Colten Pol, a 30-yard pass from Harrison to Pol and a 4-yard rush by A.J. Prater to build a 26-0 lead after the first quarter.
Pol opened the second quarter scoring for Quilcene by taking a Harrison pass 35 yards for a TD, and added a 35-yard rushing touchdown as the Rangers lead 46-0 at halftime.
“We were able to ‘limit’ Colten Pol to 118 yards rushing but he did it on only six carries, so yeah, he’s the real deal,” Loggers coach Darrell Yount said.
Caleb Anderson rumbled 52 yards for another score and Prater went for a 64-yard rushing TD in the third quarter for Quilcene.
“It was a team effort, we spread it all over the place in this game,” Wilson said.
“We’ve been striving for more of that instead of having one or two standouts.”
Yount agreed with Wilson’s assessment.
“Quil spread it around a little and were just so explosive,” Yount said.
“We were able to get a couple of stops but then they would go, ‘boom,’ and that was that.”
Zach Fletcher returned a kickoff 66 yards and Collin West scored on a 43-yard rush to account for Crescent’s points.
Fletcher totaled 345 yards of total offense for the Loggers, rushing six times for 66 yards, catching seven passes for 90 yards and returning eight kicks for 169 yards.
Unfortunately for Crescent, the Loggers lost sophomore speedster Jacob Baillargeon to a broken wrist in the first quarter.
Yount said Baillargeon is out for the rest of the season.
“Our thoughts stayed with him throughout the game so that kind of created some emotional challenges,” Yount said.
“That kind of thing has a way of keeping everything in perspective.”
Quilcene 60, Crescent 14
Crescent 0 0 0 14— 14
Quilcene 26 20 14 0— 60
First Quarter
Q— Harrison 35 interception return
2 pt good)
Q— Pol 21 rush (No good)
Q— Pol 30 pass from Harrison (No good)
Q-— Prater 4 rush (No good)
Second Quarter
Q— Pol 35 pass from Harrison (No good)
Q — Pol 35 rush (No good)
Q— Williams 1 rush (No good)
Third Quarter
Q— Caleb Anderson 52 rush (2pt good)
Q— Prater 64 rush (No good)
Fourth Quarter
C— Fletcher 66 kick return
C— West 43 rush
Individual Stats
Rushing— C: Fletcher 6-66, West 3-43, Baillargeon 2-7, Peppard 14-0. Q: Pol 6-118, Prater 3-71 Anderson 1-52, Williams 3-33, Harrison 3-15.
Passing—C: Peppard 11-30-5,127. Q: Harrison 3-4-0, 85.
Receiving—C: Fletcher 7-90, West 3-32, Buchanan 1-5. Q: Pol 2-65, Williams 1-20.
