The postseason is finally here for three North Olympic Peninsula teams.
Port Townsend will host Charles Wright, the team it beat 49-6 last week, at Memorial Field on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Class 1A West Central District playoffs.
Quilcene is hosting Taholah in the Class 1B Quad-District playoffs Saturday at 1 p.m.
In both instances, the winner advances to state and the loser is eliminated.
Neah Bay has the week off and will skip the district round of the postseason.
Port Angeles and Sequim will battle Kingston today for a spot at the 2A District 2/3 playoffs.
Teams that don’t qualify for the postseason can play crossover games this week.
Chimacum will look for its first win of the season against Vashon at Memorial Field in Port Townsend on Thursday at 6 p.m. The two teams met last Friday in Vashon, the Pirates winning 54-20.
Clallam Bay will travel to Marysville for a makeup game against Tulalip Heritage on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Bruins and Hawks were scheduled to play Oct. 25, but the game was postponed after the shootings at Marysville-Pilchuck High School the day before.
Crescent and Forks will not have games this week.
Here are three things learned last week in prep football:
■ Thin line between Bulldogs and Knights.
North Kitsap and Olympic proved to be head and shoulders above the rest the Olympic League this season.
And last Friday, the teams showed to be good competition for each other. The Vikings won their matchup, and the league title, with a 13-10 win that came down to a 47-yard field goal in the final minute.
But beyond the Vikings (6-0, 9-0) and Trojans (5-1, 6-3) were five closely matched teams.
That is clear with Sequim (2-4, 4-5), Port Angeles (2-4, 4-5) and Kingston (2-4, 2-7) playing a three-team tiebreaker for the league’s fourth and final postseason berth today at Silverdale Stadium in Bremerton.
But it goes beyond that.
North Mason (3-3, 4-5) claimed third in the league, but the Bulldogs only defeated Kingston and Bremerton (1-5, 3-6) by a touchdown each, and they lost to Sequim by six point in overtime.
Bremerton is the league’s cellar-dweller, but the Knights were less than two touchdowns away from North Mason’s 3-3 league mark.
They lost to Port Angeles by four and North Mason by seven.
Bremerton also was close to going winless in league, edging Sequim by one point last Thursday for its only league win of the season.
Sequim had the most nail-biters.
The Wolves beat Kingston by eight and North Mason by six in overtime, and they lost to Port Angeles by six in overtime and Bremerton by one.
They also had an nonleague overtime loss to Centralia by six points.
■ Red Devils are deep.
Neah Bay will enjoy a deserved bye week this week before beginning the playoff stage of its push toward repeating as Class 1B state champions.
Part of the reason the Red Devils (9-0) posted an undefeated regular season record this year can be traced to the team’s depth.
Neah Bay fields a large team for the 1B level with about 35 players.
This depth got plenty of time to shine Saturday as the Red Devils’ backups had no trouble piling up the points in a 72-42 win against the Crescent varsity.
Sophomore runnning back Michael McGee totaled 210 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 32 carries against the Loggers.
McGee has 268 yards on the ground with a 5.6 yards-per-carry average for varsity team this season, good for fifth-best on the team.
Sophomore Tommy Tyler also impressed Saturday as a receiver in the passing game and a presence in the field at linebacker.
Unfortunately, Tyler suffered what looked to be a lower leg injury and had to be helped from the field near the end of the game.
Tyler was expected to spell middle linebacker Josh Monette at times during the playoffs, according to Neah Bay defensive coordinator T.J. Greene.
Other players who showed varsity-level abilities Saturday included wide receiver Kenrick Doherty Jr., quarterback Ben Greene and freshman receiver Isaiah Knaus.
■ Neah Bay needs an intense week off.
Neah Bay is in maybe the toughest stretch of its season.
Not only do the No. 1-ranked Red Devils have this week off before beginning the state playoffs, but their last two games were against opponents they know a lot about — Crescent and Clallam Bay — and probably they knew they could beat without playing their best.
“One of the things we need to do is keep our practices intense,” senior Chris Martinez said after Friday’s 66-0 win over Clallam Bay.
“Some of our practices have been on the down side, people are getting kind of lackadaisical.
“But us seniors just got to be role models, work hard and no breaks, because they look up to us. We just got to keep everything up in intensity.”
Neah Bay head coach Tony McCaulley said the focus will be scouting potential future opponents and conditioning — lots of conditioning.
“I love it, though. Our coaches are keeping us disciplined,” Martinez said.
“We do it with our running, and we show how we stay conditioned through the end of the game.”
The Red Devils will open the state playoffs against the winner between the District 9 third seed and the District 7 third seed later this week.
“We’re preaching it, we’re preaching focus and a new season coming up,” McCaulley said.
“So I think the kids are ready to hit the playoffs running.”
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“Three things learned in high school football last week” appears each week in the PDN.
Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsualdailynews.com.
