Scoring points has come fairly easy for the Oak Harbor football team this season — at least until Friday.

The Wildcats, who in six games were undefeated with an average of 31 points per game, had their offense stalled in an 8-7 loss at Stanwood.

“As a team we just didn’t have our best game,” OHHS head coach Dave Ward said.

It didn’t appear to be that offense would be a problem initially.

Oak Harbor earned nine first downs in the first half and powered within the Spartan 20-yard line on three separate occasions.

Only one of those trips, however, resulted in a score.

With just under a minute remaining in the half, junior running back Ryan Bell converted a 10-play, 42-yard drive into a 6-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 halftime lead for the Wildcats.

Bell, who rushed six times for 17 yards, filled in for injured starting fullback and leading rusher Sean O’Brien.

The Wildcats’ other three trips inside the 20-yard line resulted in an interception of junior quarterback Marshall Lobbestael at the 1-yard line and a turnover on downs at the 17.

While Oak Harbor’s offense was slowed, the defense was doing its part.

The Wildcats held the Spartans to 170 yards total offense. Unfortunately for OHHS a large portion of those yards came when running back Van Vetch broke free for a 47-yard touchdown with 37 seconds left in the third quarter.

Instead of going for the tie after the touchdown, Stanwood surprised the Wildcats.

Lining seven players to the left side of the field the Spartans left a center, wide receiver, kicker and quarterback Aaron Boehme over the ball. Stanwood left everyone to the left and Boehme took a quick snap and broke two tackles on his way to the two-point score.

That was all the Spartans needed as they shut down the Wildcat offense the remainder of the second half.

“They decided they were just going to pack the inside and take away the running game,” Ward said.

OHHS, which averages close to 300 yards of total offense per game, ended Friday’s contest with 172 yards rushing from six different runners. Lobbestael completed 2-of-9 passes for 20 yards.

At 5-1 in league and 6-1 overall, Oak Harbor has a crucial game this Friday, Oct. 21 at home against Arlington (6-0, 7-0). With a win the Wildcats even records with the Eagles and would also earn a tiebreaker over them. A loss would tighten things up headed into the final week of league play as two other teams, Cascade and Stanwood, have two losses and Snohomish has three.

“Basically it’s for the chance to be league champion,” Ward said of Friday’s game.