Washougal stays on course for showdown, beats Ridgefield

RIDGEFIELD — Washougal made sure it didn’t have any slip-ups against Ridgefield on Friday.

But when the Spudders scored first in the game’s early stages, it looked like the Panthers might be in for a down-to-the-wire fight.

“I thought, oh no, this could be a long night,” Washougal coach Dave Hajek said. “But our kids responded.”

The Panthers exploded for a 20-point second quarter to run past the Spudders 34-14 at Ridgefield High School.

After Ridgefield’s Jeremy Martin ran 61 yards on the first drive to set up Hunter Abrams’ 10-yard touchdown, Washougal knew it needed to respond in a big way. Now the Panthers are 5-0 and can look forward to a home showdown against Hockinson next Friday.

“We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves, and that’s when you lose,” Washougal quarterback Ryan Stevens said. “I think we had a little bit of that last week (against Mark Morris). I think we were just so excited to beat River that we went in there cocky, and I think that humbled us. We came out ready to play today.”

Standout running back Kade Coons was nothing short of top form, running for 198 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.

Stevens put the Panthers on the board with a two-yard quarterback keeper to open the second quarter to take a 7-6 lead. Then Ridgefield marched back into Panther territory, but only to turnover on downs when Spudders quarterback Dawson Lieurance overthrew his receiver out of the endzone.

Washougal scored on its next two possessions to take a 20-6 lead going into halftime.

But not before the Panthers, already thin on starters, saw another key contributor go down — this time for the season.

Brevan Bea took a short pass 57 yards, dragging defenders with him, but went down in pain on the tackle. The sophomore suffered a broken leg and is out for the season, according to Hajek. The game stopped for more than five minutes as he was tended to, and eventually left on crutches.

“It’s going to hurt not having him next week and going forward,” Hajek said.

The committee of Martin and Abrams rushed for a combined 124 yards to lead the way for Ridgefield. Lieurance led a comeback effort late, stringing together a series of successful scrambles, but he was eventually picked off in the endzone.

In the end, Hajek tipped his cap to those who stepped up in place of the two injured offensive linemen, Brendan Brock and Mason Armstrong.

“We were a little banged up coming into the game,” Hajek said. “Kids did a great job. Kids stepped up. We had some sophomores that had to play for some seniors.

Stevens, who said he had the most time he’s had all season to work in the pocket, credited the line.

“I definitely feel like we responded well, especially how our new players stepped in,” he said. “After Brevan went down we needed some younger guys to step in there, so I feel like it was just having the younger guys get their feet under them.”

As the team met in the postgame and heard speeches from its coaches, one assistant coach had a clear message.

“We get ready for what we’ve been waiting for, now we can say the name: Hockinson,” he said.

WASHOUGAL 34, RIDGEFIELD 14

Washougal 0 20 14 0–34

Ridgefield 6 0 0 8–14

First quarter

R — Hunter Abrams 10 run (kick failed)

Second quarter

W — Ryan Stevens 2 run (Stevens kick)

W — Kade Coons 2 run (Stevens kick)

W — Stevens 14 run (kick failed)

Third quarter

W — Coons 16 run (Stevens good)

W — Jakob Davis 56 pass from Coons (Stevens good)

Fourth quarter

R — Brock Harrison 10 pass from Dawson Lieurance (conversion good)

INDIVIUDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Washougal: Kade Coons 20-198. Ridgefield: Jeremy Martin 9-92, Hunter Abrams 9-32, Connor Lewis 3-12, Dawson Lieurance 10-45.

PASSING — Washougal: Ryan Stevens 14-19-0-269; Ridgefield: Dawson Lieurance 9-127-1-1.

RECEIVING — Washougal: Max Churchman 2-46, Jakob Davis 3-72, Grant Lewis 3-70, Nathan Tofell 3-30, Brevan Bea 1-52.Ridgefield: Carter Pankow 3-46, Hunter Abrams 1-19, Mathew Gama 1-19, Jeremy Martin 3-20, Brock Harrison 3-23.