TACOMA — One team spent the entire fall relying on its power run game.
The other was forced to invent one in the final few weeks of the season as injuries mounted and other options were stripped away.
It didn’t take long to figure out which was which Saturday night in Tacoma.
Franklin Pierce gashed Port Angeles for 401 rushing yards and touchdowns on each of its first seven possessions to roll to a 46-0 win in Class 2A preliminary state playof action.
Senior running back Iopu Ignacio totaled 170 yards and three touchdown on 17 carries, and quarterback Reilley Peirce ran for two scores as the SPSL champions took advantage of a banged up Roughrider squad playing its third game in eight days.
“They are a better team than us, there’s no doubt about it,” Port Angeles head coach Tom Wahl said.
“I don’t have any excuses or brilliant observations. They just ran over and beat us. And offensively we just weren’t moving the ball.”
The loss ended Port Angeles’ season one game shy of its second straight trip to the 2A state playoffs.
After starting the season 6-0, the injuries began piling up on the Riders and a three-game losing streak soon followed.
By the time last week’s Sequim game rolled around, team health was so bad the coaches were forced to make a late-season schematic shift of the offense from a shotgun spread attack to a Power I formation.
Port Angeles (7-4 overall) gained 200-plus yards on the ground in the two games immediately after the switch, including a 23-6 pigtail playoff win in Renton on Tuesday.
But the bigger, more physical Cardinals (8-2) had little trouble shutting it down Saturday, limiting the Riders to just 62 yards and three first downs total.
“Not much really worked,” Wahl said.
“We weren’t able to come out and just run over them like we were able to do on Tuesday.
“Theses guys are clearly a playoff caliber team and we’re just not. We haven’t been for the last four weeks. We’ve had to change too much to be worthy of going further than this.
“The state of the team, I think we got as far as we were going to get.”
Running back Dylan Brewer had just 46 yards on 14 carries, while senior Keenen Walker had five yards on three carries.
Losing center Eric Wahl to a dislocated elbow during the first half certainly didn’t help things either.
“I think that we were all just tired and we weren’t sustaining our blocks very well,” Walker said.
“I’m still proud of every single one of the kids on the team. We had to face injuries like no other. Even our coaches were getting hurt.
“I’m just proud of everyone for fighting through it and making it to the playoff still. We still battled.”
Walker had began the season at quarterback for the Riders but was forced to move to running back for the team’s final three games after breaking his right throwing arm.
With inexperienced sophomore Larsson Chapman under center in the team’s I-formation set, Port Angeles attempted just three passes all night for a total of three yards.
Franklin Pierce didn’t take it to the air all that much, either.
Although that didn’t seem to matter the way Ignacio and company were running the ball.
“He’s just a good running back. He’s got great vision and the things that we do, he’s going to get the ball a bunch,” Franklin Pierce coach Howard Lutton said.
“I was surprised that they came out and ran the 3-4 on us, which gave him more space. That was exciting. Normally everybody packs it in real big on us.”
Port Angeles stumbled out of the gates with four straight three-and-outs offense.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals ran wild, gobbling up 158 yards rushing while marching down the field for touchdowns on each of its first three possessions.
Ignacio did most of the damage between the tackles, going for 135 of his 170 yards on the game and scoring a pair of touchdowns to give the Cardinals a 25-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Desperately searching for some offense, the Riders went for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 48 on their next possession and Chapman was sacked.
The Cardinals then moved quickly down the field for their fifth and final touchdown of the second half, this time capped by a 14-yard pass from Peirce to Issac Howard.
After a two-point conversion pass, Franklin Pierce was ahead 33-0 with a minute to go in the half and well on its way to a victory.
“We were in the right position on defense, and we just weren’t wrapping [Ignacio] up,” Walker said.
“We had him and we just didn’t finish our tackles, and then he’s really good so he scored. From then on, it just . . . I don’t even know.”
Port Angeles graduates 13 seniors total from this team, one that finished fourth in the Olympic League and reached the postseason for the second straight year.
A few of those players, however, didn’t play Saturday night because of injures, including standout receiver/runner Eli Fiscalini and all-league lineman Nick Ioffrida.
The team’s leading receiver, Cameron Braithwaite, was able to get on the field one last time for Port Angeles after missing three straight games.
Receiver/returner Skyler Gray also played for the second game in a row after missing the Sequim game.
But without Walker at quarterback throwing the two the ball, the additions ended up being moot.
“When Cameron all the sudden looked like he was going to come back, it was like we changed so much we don’t even know were to put [him],” Wahl said.
“That’s what we had to do, morph ourselves into something we totally weren’t two weeks ago.
“I think it’s a season the senior guys can be proud of, the first half for sure.
“And then just the way we kept fighting, kept battling and trying to find a solution to overcome the injury plague we had, my hats off to the coaches and the kids.”
F. Pierce 46, Port Angeles 0
Port Angeles 0 0 0 0— 0
Franklin Pierce 13 20 13 0— 46
First Quarter
FP—Ignacio 1 run (Mortenson kick)
FP—Reilley Peirce 3 run (kick no good)
FP—Ignacio 19 run (run failed)
Second Quarter
FP—Peirce 2 run (run failed)
FP—Howard 14 pass from Peirce (Salgado pass from Peirce)
Third Quarter
FP—Ignacio 1 run (kick blocked)
FP—Herrera 17 run (Mortenson kick)
Individual Stats
Rushing— PA: Walker 3-5, Brewer 14-46, Braithwaite 2-18, Chapman 5-(minus 10). FP: Ignacio 17-170, Biddix 7-81, Mintah 6-54, Herrera 8-46, Peirce 10-29, Mustin 4-`8, Harris 1-4, Wheelock 1-(minus 1).
Passing—PA: Chapman 1-3-0, 3. FP: Peirce 3-5-0, 30.
Receiving—PA: Gray 1-3. FP: Howard 1-14, Ignacio 1-13, Biddix 1-3.
