WASHOUGAL — The Woodland Beavers continue to roll, or fly, through their competition in 2A Greater St. Helens League play as they dominated the Washougal Panthers 48-7 on Friday night in Washougal.
Woodland (5-0, 3-0 2A GSHL) threw the ball on its first play from scrimmage and used balanced offense to keep the Panthers guessing while the defense never let Washougal get going.
“Mostly everybody really sticks together,” said Woodland linebacker and running back Eli Whitmire. “I trust my D-line as much as I trust my secondary behind me. All of the linebackers, we’re hardheaded kids who love to hit. That’s what makes us so great.”
Whitmire found the end zone five times on Friday night — including one punt return — totaling 104 yards on 13 carries.
Woodland came in with a game plan to use the Whitmire’s legs and Wyatt Harsh’s arm and forcing Washougal to pick their poison as the freshman quarterback read the game and racked up 260 passing yards.
“Wyatt Harsh is doing a great job,” Woodland coach Mark Greenleaf said. “He called a couple of audibles because of what he saw. He’s way above his years there. That’s his training, he understands what’s going on out there.”
Whitmire says he notices that other teams have to account for Harsh’s playmaking ability.
“It goes pretty well together. I fake the ball one way, all the backers come my way and he can throw it the other way,” Whitmire said. “He’s a natural runner but he can throw it like a son of a gun, I love that about him too.”
Harsh racked up the yards through the air and Woodland made the yards count with three first half touchdown runs.
A 62-yard touchdown play to Hunter Raney when Harsh kept the play alive and was flushed out of the pocket deflated the Panthers after their offense stalled on their first two drives of the game.
The Beavers say they aren’t getting ahead of themselves despite their early success in all three facets of the game in league play so far.
“Any given night anybody can win. It’s going to get harder each week because people have film on us and will try to take something away. We have to continue to set the bar high,” Greenleaf said.
Woodland 48, Washougal 7
Woodland 21 14 13 0—48
Washougal 0 0 0 7— 7
First quarter
Wood — Eli Whitmire 26 run (Tylor Bishop kick)
Wood — Whitmire 2 run (Bishop kick)
Wood — Hunter Raney 62 pass from Wyatt Harsh (Bishop kick)
Second quarter
Wood — Harsh 1 run (Bishop kick)
Wood — Whitmire 1 run (Bishop kick)
Third quarter
Wood — Whitmire 69 punt return (Bishop kick)
Wood — Whitmire 1 run (kick failed)
Fourth quarter
Wash — Brandon Casteel 2 run (Mauro Gonzalez kick)
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Woodland: Eli Whitmire 13-104; Hunter Raney 2-5; Harsh 2-(minus 3); Trevor Huddleston 1-(minus 5); Tylor Bishop 1-(minus 6). Washougal: Brandon Casteel 11-66, Garrett Duey 4-13, Grayden Economides 5-24, Mauro Gonzalez 1-5; Tristan Roseff 3-7; Doneald Holbert 1-6; Georgianna 2-(minus 4); Carlson 1-(minus 7).
PASSING —Woodland: Wyatt Harsh 13-17-0-260. Washougal: Kyron Carlson 3-8-1-24; Monte Georgianna 1-7-0-7.
RECEVING — Woodland: Huddleston 4-74; Raney 1-62; Jared Cloud 1-39; Whitmire 1-35; Troy Flanagan 1-32; Cody Shepherd 2-28. Washougal: Roseff 2-13; Dakota Payne 1-11; Michael Slikker 1-7.
