Juanita ends Oak Harbor’s season | Football

Published 9:00 am Saturday, November 7, 2015

It was a night for No. 2.

Juanita, the No. 2 seed from Kingco, led by Salvon Ahmed, who wore No. 2 on his jersey, defeated the Oak Harbor High School football team 49-35 Friday, Nov. 6, in a quad-district game at Wildcat Memorial Stadium and earned a berth in the state tournament.

The teams traded touchdowns until late in the third quarter when Oak Harbor failed to convert on a fourth-down play. The Rebels then drove in to take a two-touchdown lead, and the Wildcats couldn’t recover.

The game featured a battle between a pair of running backs wearing No. 2.

Their numbers were the same and their stats were similar but their styles were far from close.

Ahmed, one of Kingco’s top sprinters in track, slalomed through the Wildcat defense then turned on the jets to rush for 238 yards on 21 carries. He scored on runs of 30, 33 and 45 yards and on a screen pass from 67 yards out.

Oak Harbor’s No. 2, Princeton Lollar, resembled a human tank, running through the defense collecting Rebels on his back like troops trying to hitch a free ride. The 235-pound junior muscled his way to 249 yards and three touchdowns on 35 carries.

The two teams nearly recorded 1,000 yards of offense.

Juanita finished with 490 and Oak Harbor 509. The Rebels, however, possessed a much stronger air attack.

Juanita quarterback Tavin Montgomery completed 10 of 18 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns.

Oak Harbor quarterbacks Tyler Snavely and Taylor Kolste were 3-for-9 for 50 yards and two interceptions. (One interception was on a Hail Mary pass at the end of the half.) The three completions, all by Kolste, were quick passes down the line of scrimmage to Dyllan Harris, who picked up the yardage with his feet.

The Wildcats countered with their powerful running game. Lollar was assisted by Savion Passmore, who had 113 yards on 14 carries, and Harris, who added 109 yards on 16 runs.

Dean Sise was Juanita’s second-leading rusher, and he had 58 yards on five carries, with one run accounting for 49 of those yards.

The game started poorly for Oak Harbor.

Juanita (8-2) took the opening kickoff and zipped down the field for a score. Except for two incompletions, the Rebels picked up at least seven yards per play. The TD was a 30-yard pass from Montgomery to JD Worcester.

Oak Harbor’s first possession included four yards on two carries, a false start penalty and an interception.

Then the see-saw battle began.

Oak Harbor forced Juanita to punt and then put together an 82-yard drive to tie the score. The march included runs of 25 and 17 yards by Lollar and a 24-yard run by Harris; it finished on a three-yard rush by Passmore. Eric Jensen kicked the extra point.

Early in the second quarter, Oak Harbor couldn’t overcome a holding penalty and turned the ball over on downs. Juanita scored on its first play, the 67-yard screen pass to Ahmed.

The Wildcats countered with a 49-yard touchdown run by Passmore.

Ahmed raced 30 yards to put the Rebels up 21-14 at halftime.

The action revved up after the break. Both teams scored before one minute evaporated from the second-half clock and each tallied three times in the period.

Kolste started a quarterback in the second half and hooked up with Harris for a 21-yard gain on the first play of the third quarter. Lollar later ran 28 yards to set up his one-yard TD run that tied the game at 21.

Again, it took the Rebels just one play to regain the lead. A personal foul on Oak Harbor on the kick off gave Juanita the ball at the Wildcat 49. Sise ran it in from there to make it 28-21, Juanita.

Harris caught a pass for 19 yards, Lollar ran for 11 and Passmore 20, setting up Lollar’s score from the seven.

Juanita recovered an on-side kick attempt by Oak Harbor and drove in for the go-head score, 35-28.

The Rebels then stopped the Wildcats on downs and started their second consecutive drive in Oak Harbor territory. For the third time in the game, it took only one play for the Kirkland school to score. Ahmed bolted 45 yards and the Rebels had the first two-touchdown lead of the game, 42-28.

Oak Harbor then went 62 yards in five plays, the final 15 on a Lollar run, to cut the lead to 42-35 with 33 seconds left in the quarter.

After all the third-period fireworks, only one touchdown was scored in the fourth period.

Oak Harbor fumbled, Juanita recovered at its 41 and Ahmed ran in from 33-yards out to finish the scoring.

The Wildcats (6-3) drove to Rebel 26 before turning the ball over on downs with 3:09 left and wouldn’t get the ball back until the final 22 seconds.

(Top left: Mac Nuanez puts a big hit on a Juanita ball carrier. Middle: Savion Passmore slips away from the Rebels’ Christian Blackburn. Bottom: Offensive coordinator Mike Fisher talks with the Wildcats during a timeout. Photos by John Fisken.)