PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles football team may be facing a new league opponent when it hosts North Mason tonight at 7 p.m. in Civic Field.
But these two teams are hardly strangers.
The Roughriders lost back-to-back season openers to the Bulldogs in 2008 and ’09 by a combined score of 67-12 before dropping down from Class 3A to 2A this offseason.
Now both teams are in the same league and classification.
And the Riders, sitting near the top of the Olympic League standings at 3-0 in league and 5-0 overall, aren’t about to take the Bulldogs (2-1, 3-2) lightly.
Even with first-place Sequim (4-0, 5-1) waiting in the wings just three weeks later.
“We have a great deal of respect for [North Mason],” first-year Port Angeles coach Tom Wahl said. “We are absolutely not looking past them by any means.
“They are going to be our toughest opponent of the season. There is no question about it.”
The Port Angeles offense broke out in its last game, going for 563 yards in a 55-25 drubbing of winless Olympic, with quarterback Keenen Walker accounting for 308 yards of offense.
That included 130 yards passing and 178 on the ground.
In the four games before that, the Riders had leaned heavily on their defense, which has surrendered just 41 points in five games this season.
Against North Mason, they will face a flexbone attack that is run first, second and third.
Fullback Tommy Renne is the team’s main option (517 yards on 68 carries), but the Bulldogs also have a major home run threat in Tevin Williams.
The senior kick returner/wide receiver burned Sequim on an 85-yard kickoff return last week and is averaging 7.65 yards per carry this season.
“Our guys that run the scout team offense . . . they’ve done a nice job of doing the best they can to give us a good look at their run game, which is potent,” Wahl said.
A Rider victory would put Port Angeles within one win of clinching a playoff spot. It would also match the program’s best start to a season since the 1992 team began its year 6-0.
That team ended up finishing 9-2 after making an appearance in the state playoffs.
Vashon Island at Chimacum
PORT TOWNSEND — The Cowboys’ playoff hopes are on the line when they take on the Pirates in 1A Nisqually League action tonight at Memorial Field at 7 p.m.
Chimacum’s heart-breaking 14-13 loss to Life Christian last week meant it would have to win out the rest of the year and get some help in order to reach the postseason.
That quest begins tonight with the Pirates (1-2, 2-3), who come into the game on a two-game losing streak after falling to Nisqually powers Cascade Christian and Orting.
Chimacum (0-3, 1-4) is currently on a three-game skid of its own.
Port Townsend at Life Christian
TACOMA — The Redskins are looking for their first win of the season in tonight’s 1A Nisqually League road game.
Port Townsend has managed just one touchdown in each of its five losses this fall, getting outscored 164-34.
They will take on a Life Christian team (1-2, 2-3) that just barely squeaked past Chimacum last week 14-13.
Forks at Montesano
MONTESANO — The Spartans get perhaps their toughest test of the season tonight when they face SWL-Evergreen Division power Montesano.
The fifth-ranked Bulldogs (3-0, 5-0) have been undefeated in Evergreen play since moving down from 2A to 1A in 2006.
They have outscored teams 222-54 this season under former Forks coach Terry Jensen.
Montesano is 7-1 against Forks since Jensen took over.
Crescent at Easton-Thorp
THORP — The Loggers (2-1) break away from their Northwest Football League schedule to take on the Jaguars in a nonleague contests today at 3 p.m.
The Northeast-South League squad is 1-2 on the season, with its last loss a 49-0 setback to No. 3 Almira-Coulee-Hartline last Friday.
Crescent is coming off a 52-6 drubbing of Highland Christian in Joyce.
Muckleshoot at Quilcene
QUILCENE — The Rangers will try to shake off the cobwebs in Saturday’s Northwest Football League tilt after suffering a humbling defeat at the hands of Neah Bay the week before.
Quilcene, which hadn’t allowed a score in its first three games, fell 66-16 to the Red Devils in nonleague action last Friday for its first loss of the season.
The Rangers (2-0 in league, 3-1 overall) now host a Muckleshoot team coming off back-to-back mercy-rule losses to Neah Bay and Evergreen Lutheran.
