Offense joins the party, Spudders pull away

RIDGEFIELD — It took awhile, but Ridgefield’s offense caught up with its defense Friday.

And once it did, the Spudders ran away from Washougal for a 56-3 Class 2A Greater St. Helens League victory.

After building a 14-3 halftime lead, Ridgefield (4-1, 2-0) put together three touchdowns in both the third and fourth quarters. But it was the defense that set the tone for the game.

“We’ve got an awesome defense,” coach Dan Anderson said. “A pretty darn good offense got very little against us. We don’t allow hardly anything on the ground.”

For the record, hardly anything amounts to 41 carries for 82 yards. At least it did for Washougal (3-3, 0-2). The Panthers added 44 yards through the air for a total of 126.

Ridgefield opened the scoring on its opening possession with an 11-yard TD run by Clayton Farr. The score was set up by a 36-yard run from Joe Siegel on a fake punt.

“We’ve run it before,” Siegel said. “Last week I ran for 31.”

But while the defense was doing its part, Ridgefield’s offense stumbled for much of the first half, losing two fumbles.

That wasn’t a problem after halftime.

“We had the right schemes in the first half,” Anderson said. “We just missed on a few executions.

“We knew we could run the ball, too. We had a couple missed blocks.”

The Spudders finally got on track with a series of long pass plays. A 40-yard pass from Gunnar Long to Sam Gillenwater led to a touchdown that made it 14-3 late in the second quarter.

On the opening possession of the second half, Long hit John White for a 48-yard gain to the Washougal 1, setting up a touchdown. When Ridgefield added two more touchdowns in the next five minutes, the rout was on.

RIDGEFIELD 56, WASHOUGAL 3

Washougal 0 3 0 0– 3

Ridgefield 7 7 21 21–56

First quarter

R — Clayton Farr 11 run (Dalton Ries kick)

Second quarter

W — Dakota Payne 33 FG

R — Gunnar Long 1 run (Ries kick)

Third quarter

R — Farr 1 run (Ries kick)

R — Farr 9 run (Ries kick)

R — Long 8 run (Ries kick)

Fourth quarter

R — Michael Knox 69 run (Ries kick)

R — Knox 12 run (Ries kick)

R — Long 1 run (Ries kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Washougal: Austin Toffell 10-64, Bobby Jacobs 15-31, Randy Gubser 4-5, Adam Thomas 1-2, Tristian Roseff 1-1, Brandon Bea 1-(-10), Chase Duey 7-(-11); Ridgefield: Michael Knox 4-96, Clayton Farr 11-79, Joe Siegel 1-36, Gunnar Long 8-18, Matt Cushwa 1-9, Nathan Eggleston 1-8, Ian Williams 2-4.

PASSING — Washougal: Chase Duey 2-12-0-10, Brandon Bea 2-5-0-34; Ridgefield: Gunnar Long 7-13-0-146.

RECEIVING — Washougal: Bobby Jacobs 2-28, Nathan Adams 2-16; Ridgefield: Sam Gillenwater 2-74, John White 2-73, Clayton Farr 1-0, Matt Cushwa 2-(-1).