PORT ANGELES — Tom Wahl asked for more fight from his Port Angeles Roughriders.
Facing the Class 3A Bremerton Knights on Friday night in Civic Field, it took a little less than two quarters for them to provide a knockout.
The Riders roared out of the gates early, scoring five unanswered touchdowns to start the game and roll to a 47-27 victory in both teams’ Olympic League opener.
It was exactly the sort of response Wahl was looking for when the second-year head coach challenged his team following last week’s lackluster 28-14 win over the 1A Forks Spartans.
“They responded to the challenge that we gave then last week,” said Wahl, whose team is now 1-0 in league and 3-0 overall.
“I wanted to see that they were going to come out and go after the other team like a champion does.
“You go after them, you establish the game . . . and I felt like they did that in the first half. I was proud.”
Port Angeles out-gained Bremerton 282 yards to 91 during a frantic first half, scoring on five of its first seven possessions.
A charged-up Rider defense limited the Knights to three first downs on their first six offensive series and forced four turnovers as they took a commanding 32-0 lead.
That would be more than enough to weather a late Bremerton rally that brought them as close as 12 points at 39-27 with 2:30 left in the game.
“We used that [Forks game] a lot from last week [as a motivator],” senior quarterback/safety Keenen Walker said.
“We also just wanted to make a statement of who we are, and how we can play.”
Walker certainly made a strong opening statement in his case for league MVP honors, delivering a command performance.
The senior two-way star racked up 349 yards of total offense, threw for five touchdowns and dished out a couple of devastating hits in the secondary to help set the tone Friday night.
He ended up with 285 yards through the air, completing 14 of 26 passes with just one interception — his first of the season.
Eli Fiscalini caught six of those throws for 127 yards and two touchdowns while Cameron Braithwaite had five grabs for 104 and one touchdown.
Running back Dylan Brewer also rumbled for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries to help the Riders finish with 471 yards of offense.
“We weren’t happy with how we played [last Friday] and we knew we were better than that, so we came out here ready to play,” Fiscalini said.
“Last game we were kind of slow, our passing didn’t connect, so we came into this game just knowing what we had to do.
“We just executed.”
While Bremerton (0-1, 1-1) finished with 467 total yards, all but 35 of those came after they were down 32-0 with three minutes left in the first half.
Brewer opened up the scoring with a physical 26-yard touchdown run on the Riders’ second drive.
Port Angeles scored on its next two series after that, with Walker connecting on a 46-yard touchdown pass with Braithwaite and a 37-yard scoring strike with Skyler Gray.
The latter came after Fiscalini picked off Bremerton quarterback Michael Lawrence with one second to go in the first quarter.
Two possessions later, Walker found Fiscalini on a perfectly lofted 20-yard pass in the end zone.
Brewer added a 3-yard touchdown run soon after that, and the rout was on.
“Our offensive line did the best I’ve ever seen blocking,” Walker said.
“They were just all over the place. The dive was working, the trap was working and when I was passing I had all kinds of time, so that just led to everything.”
Bremerton made things interesting, scoring on its second-to-last drive of the first half and three of its first five possessions to begin the second half.
But the Riders had an answer each time.
That included Walker touchdown passes of 60 and 15 yards to Fiscalini and Gray, respectively, in the final two quarters.
“They were trying to man up our receivers, and we thought that our receivers had an advantage over them, and they did,” said Walker, who had six passes of 20 yards of more.
“We just exploited that and went deep.”
Lawrence completed 23 of 37 passes for 273 yards to lead Bremerton, with rangy 6-foot-4 tight end Tim Pounds reeling in 12 balls for 157 yards.
Andrew Shadle ran for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, while Lawrence had 60 yards and two scores on 21 carries despite being sacked nine times by Port Angeles.
Rider defensive lineman Brian Cristion had four of those sacks, and Brewer had two.
“We kind of came out a little flat, but not too bad, and I thought we could hang with them,” Knights coach Nate Gillam said.
“Then they got a couple of big plays that took the wind out of our sails.
“You’ve got to give credit to our kids, they didn’t quit.”
P. Angeles 47, Bremerton 27
Bremerton 0 7 14 6— 27
Port Angeles 19 13 7 8— 47
First Quarter
PA—Brewer 26 run (Haskins kick)
PA—Braithwaite 46 pass from Walker (kick failed)
PA—Gray 37 pass from Walker (conversion failed)
Second Quarter
PA—Fiscalini 20 pass from Walker (kick failed)
PA—Brewer 3 run (Haskins kick)
B—Lawrence 1 run (Petroski kick)
Third Quarter
B—Lawrence 10 run (Petroski kick)
PA—Fiscalini 60 pass from Walker (Haskins kick)
B—Shadle 10 run (Petroski kick)
Fourth Quarter
B—Shadle 2 run (run failed)
PA—Gray 15 pass from Walker (Fiscalini run)
Individual Stats
Rushing— PA: Brewer 15-100, Walker 14-64, Fiscalini 3-16, Braithwaite 1-6. B: Shadle 23-131, Lawrence 24-60, Ellis 2-3, Anderson 1-2.
Passing—PA: Walker 14-26-1, 285. B: Lawrence 23-37-1, 273; Petroski 0-1-1, 0.
Receiving—PA: Fiscalini 6-127, Braithwaite 5-104, Gray 2-52, Hannam 1-2. B: Pounds 12-157, Shadle 6-65, Noll 3-33, Kogoy 2-18.
