Halfway through the regular season, the postseason prospects of most North Olympic Peninsula high school football teams are becoming more clear.
Neah Bay, ranked No. 1 in Class 1B, looks like a shoe-in to make the district playoffs and a favorite to advance to the state semifinals, if not the championship game.
If Quilcene beats Evergreen Lutheran this week, the Rangers should win the SeaTac League championship.
Port Townsend’s rematch with Coupeville at home Friday night will go a long way toward determining which Olympic League 1A team advances to the postseason.
A few other teams are on the fringe of the postseason.
But one team’s postseason standing is still a mystery, for the most part.
That team, Sequim, leads off the three things learned last week in high school football:
■ Sequim won’t go down easy.
Are the Wolves fighting for one of the Olympic League’s postseason berths or battling for better postseason position?
Sequim has only played two league games so far — a win over Kingston, which looks like it is one of the league’s lower tier teams, and a loss to eighth-ranked North Kitsap, far and away the league favorite.
Where exactly the Wolves fit in will be determined over the next three weeks in games against North Mason, Port Angeles and Olympic.
Whatever happens, Sequim probably won’t go down without a fight.
The Wolves lost their second straight game last Friday, falling to undefeated Centralia, which is just outside the Class 2A rankings.
Sequim trailed by two touchdowns at halftime, but they came back, holding the Tigers scoreless in the second half and forcing overtime, where the Wolves came up a little short on a fourth-down play.
The Wolves are a young bunch without a lot of size, but they’ve been a scrappy bunch so far.
■ Port Angeles’ path is uphill.
The Roughriders fell to 1-2 in the Olympic League with their homecoming loss to Olympic last week.
That means Port Angeles has three league games left to prove it is better than three other league teams. Four of the seven Olympic League 2A teams advance to sub-districts, and fourth place looks to be the best the Riders can do.
They have already defeated Bremerton, the only league team without a league win, and they’ve lost to Olympic (2-0) and North Mason (2-1).
Port Angeles finishes the league schedule against North Kitsap, which looks like it will go through the league undefeated for the second consecutive season.
So, unless the Riders can pull off a major upset on Halloween, their postseason hopes probably come down to matchups with Sequim (1-1) on Oct. 17 and Kingston (1-2) on Oct. 24.
But even wins in those two games might not be enough. They’ll need Sequim to lose one other road game, since Olympic and North Mason hold the head-to-head tiebreakers over the Riders.
Other area teams on the fringe of the postseason are Forks and Clallam Bay.
■ Port Townsend adds depth.
At a time when many teams are dealing with multiple injuries, the season debuts of Port Townsend’s Wesley Wheeler, Roberto Gomez, Ezra Easley and Colby Martin in recent weeks have given the Redhawks a stronger rushing attack on offense and an improved pass rush and pass defense.
Wheeler rushed four times for 95 yards and two touchdowns and caught a pass for another 24 yards — all in the first half — during Port Townsend’s 56-0 demolition of Chimacum last Friday. Gomez added 55 yards and a touchdown on four touches.
It was the first action of the season for both players.
Easley made his debut in the third game against Klahowya, but his presence was felt most Friday against the Cowboys when intercepted a first-half pass and returned the ball 30 yards into Chimacum territory, and added three other pass deflections.
Martin, meanwhile, played a reserve role on both lines, but he adds another big body (6-foot-2, 230 pounds) and has previous starting experience.
Port Townsend coach Nick Snyder said the return of these players and others from early season ineligibility has made its biggest impact on the practice field, especially on the lines.
“We can go ones versus ones,” Snyder said. “We only have one starter that goes both ways on the line, and having those guys out led to having some of our younger guys step in and prove they can play.
“It lets us give each other such good looks. Practice this week was like a varsity game.”
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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.
