PORT TOWNSEND — The Redhawks had a rough finish to their season, first losing leading rusher Dylan Tracer to a broken hand early against Sultan, then getting overwhelmed 68-18 by the Turks.
The highlights for Port Townsend was an 80-yard touchdown run in the first quarter by Logan Massey. Wes Blue, normally an offensive lineman, also scored a 45-yard touchdown when he caught a pass on a trick play.
“They [Sultan] were pretty impressive for a team that was 1-8. They were big, strong and fast,” said coach Patrick Gaffney.
With a win, the Redhawks could have finished the season with a winning record. They will have to settle for a 4-5 record with an astonishingly young team. Port Townsend had just seven seniors on it’s freshman-dominated roster, and some of those seniors have been out with injuries for a while.
With Tracer out (and rusher Jerome Reaux Jr. injured a few weeks ago), the Redhawks were forced to put sophomores in the backfield.
“We did what we could, we improvised a little,” Gaffney said.
Tracer is a top-notch wrestler for the Redhawks who placed fourth at the state last year in his weight class and was ranked No. 1 in the state this year. Gaffney expects Tracer to return to the mat later in the winter.
“He’ll be back. He’ll do what the doctors tell him. He’s not going to miss his senior season of wrestling,” Gaffney said.
It was Noa Montoya’s final game for the Redhawks. The all-league defensive back and starting wuarterback called his own plays for his last game and did the punting for Port Townsend.
“He’s such a great person. He’s great with the younger kids. He makes practices really fun. He reminds us all the time that football is supposed to be fun,” Gaffney said.
The Redhawks lose Montoya, Tracer, Kesem Coggins, Blue, Sean Jones, Riley Yackulic and Bryan Felton to graduation.
Port Townsend only has a handful of juniors as the Redhawks will continue to be young next season entering a new league. The Olympic 1A League will be disbanded after this year as Chimacum and Klahowya are expected to change classifications. On the positive side, Port Townsend’s roster grew from 24 to 39 kids this seaosn.
“Two years from now, we’ll be pretty solid,” Gaffney said.
Concrete 49, Chimacum 28
CONCRETE — Chimacum lost its final game of the year 49-28 to Concrete in a nonleague contest.
Carson McConnell scored twice in the game and Anson Jones and Clayton Smith also scored for the Cowboys.
“With backup lineman in, they kind of started pounding our line in the second half,” Chimacum coach Chris Storm said.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to throw. Henry [Brebberman] is a young QB, he’s a senior but it was his first year playing the position. Our depth showed.”
The Cowboys went 2-8 in likely their final season at the 1A classification. Chimacum is expected to drop to 2B next year.
The Cowboys were a very young team with only three seniors — Brebberman, lineman Jacob Williamson and McConnell.
“Carson had a huge year,” Storm said. “He was our leader in touchdowns.
“It’s unfortunate, Wyatt [Pennington] and Jacob, I’ve coached them on and off since sixth grade. Pennington was injured and missed his senior year.
“He was our dominate left tackle and Wyatt was the QB, so losing Wyatt made it tough for him. He also was fighting a strained hamstring. It was tough for him dealing with that. He’s athletic enough and big enough to play at the next level.”
Much of the team was made up of sophomores who will be back next year.
“We will probably have 18 juniors on our team next year,” Storm said.
