“In bitterly cold and rainy weather conditions last Saturday, the Oak Harbor Jets won the North Cascade Youth Football League Midget Championship as they destroyed Stanwood White, 30-6. Six fumbles sealed the the White’s fait as slick and chilly conditions made holding on to the ball difficult for the youngsters from Stanwood. They kept pitching the ball outside and couldn’t hang on to the ball, said head coach Scott Brookhouse. The Jets’ offense had no problems running the ball or catching pitches to the outside. Oak Harbor running back Chris Valencia tore up the Stanwood defense for 115 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns, while Chris Vallery pounded the ball up the middle nine times for 46 yards. Our receivers kept the opponents defense in a daze, said assistant coach Ty Young. Knowing any one of them were capable of receiving and scoring by the flip of the wrist from the QB.Quarterback Eric McCardle led the team and scored two key touchdowns for Oak Harbor, according to Young. Jordan Young led the Jets with two pass completions for 22 yards and two extra point receptions. The Jets came out strong in the first half but could only get their offense in gear enough to score two touchdowns and take the lead over Stanwood 14-6 at the half. The only thing that changed was that it was so cold that we just told them they only had two quarters left in the season and they weren’t cold anymore, said Brookhouse about his half-time speech. The second half would be a different story as the Jets defense was unrelenting, stopping the Whites cold in their tracks and giving their offense ample opportunities to score. Our defense continually stopped them, said Brookhouse. Our defense was big.The defense was led by Chris Vallery, who had three tackles and two fumble recoveries. Vallery also led the team for the season in tackles with 57. Jim Koepke also had a fumble recovery, and both Jake Rouser and Koepke joined Vallery with three tackles.The encouragement by their coach fired up the team to play their hearts out as they sealed the victory. The dominance in the championship game for the Jets was not a new experience for the team. Oak Harbor outscored their opponents 257-26, with only four touchdowns allowed this year, as they racked up 10 victories and no losses for the season. Most of the kids have been with Brookhouse for three years and he says that he is excited for next season with the team returning eight starters. One huge reason for the Jets success this season was the rushing of Valencia. The running back earned 947 yards on only 101 carries for the season. With an average run of over 9.3 yards per attempt and scoring 15 touchdowns, his coach had only one semi regret. If I would have known that he would have gotten over a 1,000 yards, said Brookhouse.Valencia’s breakout game of the year was the team’s previous game where he ran for 306 yards on 11 carries and scored four touchdowns. Young notes that without the blocking of the team’s line and fullbacks, Valencia would not have had as many holes to get so many yards this season. He commended his team’s heart in the way that they blocked.Two other reasons that Brookhouse noted for the success of the program this year is the support of the parents and the job of the program director John Dumas.In every game we got compliments about how well our program is run, said Brookhouse. And we have the best parents in the whole league. According to the head coach, every year the team has some problems with parents and this season was a pleasant exception. We had no conflicts this year, said Brookhouse. They were great. “