The special teams for Oak Harbor High School were anything but special in the Wildcats’ 30-28 loss to Monroe in the season opener Friday, Sept. 5, at Wildcat Memorial Stadium.

Oak Harbor had two punts and an extra point partially blocked, booted a one-yard punt on an unblocked kick, gave up a 53-yard punt return and failed to cover a pooch kick on a kick-off.

In addition, the Wildcats lost four fumbles, botched three quarterback-center exchanges, failed to convert on a pair of two-point extra-point tries, gave up five sacks and collected three personal foul penalties in a four-play stretch.

All that and Oak Harbor still lost by only two points — thanks to out-gaining the Bearcats 444 yards to 174. Oak Harbor had a chance to win it at the end, driving to the Monroe 29 before a mishandled snap and two sacks ended the game.

Monroe started drives at the Oak Harbor 28-, 36-, 25-, 40-, 18- and 37-yard lines because of Wildcat blunders.

Early it was all Oak Harbor as Monroe netted no first downs and a minus three yards of offense in is first three possessions.

On the Wildcats’ first possession, they drove 55 yards to the Bearcat 1-yard line, then a penalty, incomplete pass and three-yard loss led to a field goal as Mark Johnston knuckled one through from 26 yards out.

On Oak Harbor’s next possession, quarterback Clay Doughty got things going with a shovel pass to Quinn Karney that went for 31 yards. Two plays later, Dejon Devroe raced in from the 26 for the score.  Monroe got a hand on Johjnston’s PAT kick, and Oak Harbor led 9-0.

Monroe had another three-and-out, but Oak Harbor fumbled at its own 28 and the Bearcats pushed it in from there.

Early in the second quarter. Monroe got a hand on a Zach Jones’ punt and downed the ball at the Oak Harbor 25. Two players later, it led 14-9.

Again Monroe got a piece of a Jones’ punt, taking over at the Wildcat 42. Tanner Ohlsen kicked a 36-yard field goal to make it 17-9.

Late in the quarter, Devroe bolted 80 years for a touchdown. The PAT pass failed, and it was 17-15.

On its second possession of the second half, Oak Harbor drove to the Bearcat 25, but three major penalties pushed Oak Harbor back to its own 34. Jones got off a nice punt, but Monroe ran it back 53 yards to the 18. On fourth-and-goal at the one, Monroe punched it in, Oak Harbor blocked the extra point and the Bearcats led 23-15 with five minutes left in the third quarter.

Oak Harbor fumbled away its next possession, but  Ohlsen was just short on a 44-yard field-goal attempt on the second play of the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats put together a four-minute drive that covered 80 yards to get within two, 23-21. Jones ran three times in the drive for 46 yards and caught an 11-yard pass. Princeton Lollar scored from the 8 but was stopped on the point-after run.

The Wildcats forced a Monroe punt but fumbled the ball right back with 5:38 left in the game. The Bearcats switched from its spread formation to a two-tight end, full-house backfield and marched 60 yards to take a 30-21 lead with 3:32 remaining.

Oak Harbor, beginning at its own 31, saw a golden chance slip away on its first play when Devroe got behind the Monroe secondary only to have Doughy’s bomb just slip off his finger tips. The Wildcats kept battling, over came a fourth-down play and scored on a 37-yard pass from Doughty to Dyllan Harris with 1:37 left. Johnston kicked the PAT, making it 30-28.

After a failed onside kick, the Wildcat defense did its part,  stopping Monroe on three-straight plays and stopping the clock with their three timeouts.

Oak Harbor began at its own 22 with 1:07 left. A 37-yard pass to Harris and 12-yard Devroe run put the ball at the Bearcat 29, but the drive fizzed from there with a botched snap, spike and two sacks.

Devroe finished with 174 yards on 15 carries, Jones had 52 yards on seven tries and Karney added 44 on 12 carries. Doughty hit nine of 13 passes for 148 yards. Harris caught five of the passes for 95 yards.

Jacob Jerome ran for 89 yards on 18 carries for Monroe; Andrew Zimmerman hit six of 20 passes for 95 yards.

Oak Harbor coach Jay Turner was pleased his club still “had a chance to win it” at the end,” but added, “you can’t play like that and expect to win.”

“Fortunately it was a non-league game and we can learn from it,” he said.

Oak Harbor now heads to Ferndale for a non-league game at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12.

(The statistics in this story are unofficial.)