Ridgefield 24, Fort Vancouver 23
Dylan Young scored three touchdowns as the Spudders had to fend off Fort’s furious fourth-quarter comeback.
Down 24-17 in the fourth quarter, Fort got the ball after bad snap on a Ridgefield punt inside the Spudders’ 40-yard line.
Quarterback Richard Vansiclen hit Jordan Vela on an 11-yard touchdown pass with 1:20 left to play to make it 24-23.
But the Spudders stopped Fort’s run on the two-point conversion to preserve the win.
“When we got the ball on that last drive, I asked our quarterback (Richard Vansiclen) ‘If he go down and score, do you want to go for 2 and the win or go for 1 and go into overtime,” Fort coach Cal Szueber said. “He said he wanted to for the win. So we did, and it didn’t work out for us.”
Young rushed for 190 yards on 22 carries and rushed for two touchdowns as Ridgefield opened up a 21-0 lead. He also opened the game with an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
“I was proud of the way we played the game,” Szueber said. “I was proud of the way they battled back.”
Vansiclen completed 8 of 13 passes for 132 yards and two touchdown.
“It’s been a long time since a Fort quarterback had a game like that,” Szueber said. “We had three drops in the first quarter, or his numbers would have been even better.”
Vela finished with 11 carries for 104 yards, and Abdul Conteh had 13 carries for 93 yards for Fort.
Next up: Fort Vancouver (0-1) vs. Battle Ground; Ridgefield (1-0) at Woodland.
Fort Vancouver 0 0 6 17—23
Ridgefield 14 0 10 0—24
First quarter
R — Dylan Young 85 kickoff return (Matt Newman kick)
R — Young 41 run (Newman kick)
Third quarter
R — Young 8 run (Newman kick)
FV — Jordan Vela 61 pass from Richard Vansiclen (kick failed)
R — Newman 26 FG
Fourth quarter
FV — Vansiclen 1 run (Taylor Vanheck pass from Vansiclen)
FV — Oswaldo Camarena 27 FG
FV — Vela 11 pass from Vansiclen (run failed)
Leaders
Rushing — Fort Vancouver — Vela 11-104, Abdul Conteh 13-93. Ridgefield — Young 22-190, Juan Valencia 16-97, Clay Barton 7-10.
Passing — Fort Vancouver — Vansiclen 8-13-0-132. Ridgefield — Barton 6-17-1-68.
Receiving — Fort Vancouver — Vela 2-68, Robert Bain 4-40, Vanheck 1-23. Ridgefield — Clayton Farr 2-23, Young 2-14, Marcus Deal 1-30, Travis Schlosser 1-1.
