SEQUIM — The old coaches’ wisdom that you win games in the weight room applied directly to Sequim’s season-opening 35-26 nonleague win over Forks on Friday night.
Up front the Wolves controlled both lines of scrimmage, particularly on the offensive end, as senior quarterback Zeke Schmadeke ran 22 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns and senior running back Liam Wiker busted his way through the Spartans for a 21-carry, 106-yard, two-touchdown night.
“The kids played hard,” Henley said. “They’ve worked hard all summer and hard in camp. They really earned this win and it’s much more of a testament to them than to me and how much they want to be good.
“We can build on this and continue and there’s lots of things to work on but overall a pretty good first game.”
Olympic transfer Malachi Hampton added a new dimension to the offense with his catches on jet passes, including one for a touchdown, and also intercepted Forks’ sophomore quarterback Bubba Hernandez at cornerback. Simon Skribner added another interception for Sequim and John Prorok’s tackle-for-loss on DeAnthony Davila is an early candidate for the team’s season highlight reel.
“They outplayed us physically,” Spartans head coach Trevor Highfield. “It was as simple as they were a tougher team than us. “Their program rededicated itself to a summer lifting program and it paid off. We struggled with turnout for ours for the first time.”
It wasn’t always pretty. Sequim reached the double-digit mark in penalties by halftime and continued to add to the tally frequently in the final two quarters negating productive play after productive play.
Schmadeke called the game a good performance. “There were lots of things we can do better. I’m impressed with our line, they made things happen for us all game. We had lots of penalties and that’s been a season-opener problem for years but I liked the way we fought back. Im proud of everybody flor battling through cramps, everybody came together at the end.”
The Wolves also yielded a fumble recovery in the end zone by Spartans’ senior captain Sawyer Graham early in the fourth quarter to make it a 27-20 contest.
But for every mistake Sequim made, the Wolves showed resolve in making up for seemingly every miscue.
Up 7-0 in the first quarter after Hernandez juked one way and went the other on a 72-yard quarterback keeper, Forks appeared to be in good shape to get the ball back on defense after a 13-yard loss on a poor snap.
But Schmadeke, who made Spartans miss all game, produced a crucial 23-yard gain to keep the drive alive and Wiker capped it off with a 10-yard TD run.
Forks then answered another Sequim scoring drive as Hernandez found Gabe Willenbrink for a 9-yard rollout pass touchdown and a 14-13 Spartans lead at halftime.
Schmadeke added two touchdown runs in the third quarter, including one with Wiker on the sidelines while dealing with a muscle cramp, as Sequim seized the momentum and a 27-14 lead.
Another poor snap led to Graham’s fourth-quarter touchdown with 10:14 to play.
Sequim, though, had the answer as the Wolves powered through some penalties and Wiker bashed his way through a group of Spartans for a 10-yard score with 5:11 to go.
“The kids did a great job of responding to adversity,” Henley said. “We’ve talked about that since I got here that bad things are going to happen, nobody’s perfect and things aren’t always going to go the way you planned but just keep plugging away and falling back on the things we know we do well: get the ball to our playmakers and play tough defense.”
Forks didn’t relent, with Hernandez making some plays with his arm and scampering 18-yards to paydirt and a 35-26 lead. The Spartans chose to go for the two-point conversion after the score and were rebuffed by the Wolves and Sequim’s Adrian Aragon safely recovered the last-gasp onside kick to seal the game.
“Defensive effort was good, we gave up too many big plays but we came together on the last drive and stopped that 2-point conversion and that sealed it,” Schmadeke said.
Sequim 35, Forks 26
Forks 7 7 0 12 — 26
Sequim 7 6 14 8 — 35
Scoring
First Quarter
Forks — Bubba Hernandez 72 run (Davila kick) 7:44.
Sequim — Wiker 10 run (Henninger kick) 3:20.
Second Quarter
Sequim — Hampton 5 pass from Schmadeke (two-point failed) 7:40.
Forks — Willenbrink 9 pass from Hernandez (kick good) 4:19.
Third Quarter
Sequim — Schmadeke 1 run (kick failed) 5:28.
Sequim — Schmadeke 3 run (Schmadeke run) 1:26.
Fourth Quarter
Forks — Sawyer Graham fumble recovery in end zone (kick failed) 10:14.
Sequim — Wiker 9 run (Schmadeke run) 5:11.
Forks — Hernandez 18 run (run fails) 2:16.
Statistics
Passing
Forks — Hernandez 7-15-80, 2 INTs. TD.
Sequim — Miller 3-6-31; Schmadeke 5-7-50. TD.
Rushing
Forks — Hernandez 9-129; DeAvila 6-9; Olson 4-7; Highfield 1-2.
Sequim — Schmadeke 22-174; Wiker 21-106; Taylor 2-9.
Receiving
Sequim — Hampton 5-50; Wiker 2-15; Schmadeke 1-16.
Forks — Willenbrink 2-39; Olson 3-30; Highfield 1-11.
Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group Sequim’s quarterback Zeke Schmadeke runs with the ball against Forks. In on the play is the Spartans’ Landon Thomas (34).
