PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles’ Parker Nickerson showed flashes of what Roughriders fans can expect to see from him his junior and senior years, while senior Beckett Jarnagin had a whale of a game in his final day as a Riders’ football player.
Nickerson passed for 283 yards and four touchdowns, while Jarnagin caught six passes for 164 yards and four touchdowns in a 47-6 romp over North Mason.
The Riders missed out by one slot for a potential bi-district playoff spot, so had nothing but pride to play for. And they showed a lot of pride to finish the season 4-6 (3-4 in Olympic League play). It was the Riders’ first four-win season since 2014.
Nickerson ended up passing 11-for-18 with many of his passes perfectly on target deep downfield. Jarnigan kept getting behind the Bulldogs’ defense and Nickerson found him for several big plays.
Jarnagin said the Riders have been working on the deep ball all year.
“Parker threw the ball the best he has all season,” Jarnagin said. “This was definitely the best game of my entire career.”
“That was our best game all year. Parker, he’s special,” said coach Dustin Clark.
“We found their weak spots,” Nickerson said. “We’ve been working on [long pass plays] and making my throws more of a line drive rather than lofting it.
“It feels nice to blow a team out and get ready for next year,” Nickerson said.
Clark said it was a great way to finish the season. It was Port Angeles’ first four-win season in years.
“I told the kids there’s only two teams in the state who finish their last game winners, us and the state champions,” Clark said. “It all clicked tonight. North Mason hit the wrong storm tonight.”
Jarnagin had touchdowns receptions of 32, 20, 12 and 36 yards. The 36-yarder might have been the best as it came on a ball tipped by a Bulldogs’ defensive back. Jarnigan kept his concentration on the ball, snatched it out of midair and sprinted to the end zone.
The Riders tallied 514 total yards of offense, with 296 yards passing and more than 217 yards rushing. Port Angeles had more than 400 yards of offense in the first half alone as Nickerson started the game 6-for-7 passing for 154 yards.
Daniel Cable had 100 yards rushing on 10 carries. He ran for a short touchdown and threw an 13-yard touchdown pass on a halfback option to Jarnigan. Jaziel Livingston had a short touchdown run and rushed 10 times for 107 yards. Ezra Townsend had a 50-yard reception and Brantyn Fisler had 44 yards receiving, including a 12-yard touchdown catch.
On defense, Langdon Jones had a monster game with two quarterback sacks, a tackle for a loss, an interception and a fumble recovery. The Riders had nine sacks total and didn’t allow North Mason to cross the 30-yard line until the last minute of the game.
“I was just reading the plays. The D-line helped a lot,” Jones said.
“Our defense was absolutely unbelievable tonight,” Clark said. Livingston had three sacks, Cole Johnson two-and-a-half and Lance Menes one-and-a-half.
The Riders came closer than it looks at first blush to a winning record. Port Angeles had three games this year that they lost by a touchdown or less (17-12 to Sequim, 36-28 to Blaine and 19-13 to Bremerton) and another game they lost by two touchdowns (41-29 to Olympic). They easily could have been a 7-3 team.
With Friday night’s win, a game rescheduled from early this season due to COVID-19 protocols, the Riders went 3-4 in Olympic League play this season.
