One of several prominent story lines popped to the forefront in Oak Harbor High School’s 55-20 win over Meadowdale Friday, Oct. 30, at Edmonds Stadium — the effort of fill-in running back Mac Nuanez.
Nuanez, subbing for an injured Princeton Lollar, scored six touchdowns while rushing for 172 yards on 25 carries.
The win earned Oak Harbor the No. 3 seed out of the Western Conference into the quad-district playoffs.
The Wildcats (6-2) will host the second-place team from Kingco, Juanita (7-2), at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at Wildcat Memorial Stadium.
In addition to Nuanez’s breakout performance against Meadowdale, three other elements of the game stood out: Oak Harbor’s defense, the continuation of Oak Harbor’s impressive running game and penalties.
With the help of six sacks, the Oak Harbor defense held Meadowdale to negative total yards until midway through the third quarter.
Three backs rushed for more than 100 yards for the Wildcats. Dyllan Harris and Savion Passmore each went over the century mark and averaged more than 10 yards per carry. Harris finished with 125 yards on 12 carries, and Passmore added 102 on eight.
Penalties stung Oak Harbor in the first half. The Wildcats were dinged for four penalties for 45 yards in the game’s first nine plays. By halftime, the total reached 90 yards on eight infractions. The Wildcats, however, were not penalized in the second half.
Meadowdale was whistled five times for 60 yards.
Lollar, Oak Harbor’s leading rusher for the season, practiced little during the week because of a tailbone injury suffered the previous game. He had only two carries for six yards against Meadowdale.
The Oak Harbor offense didn’t miss a beat when Nuanez took over.
“Princeton is a special talent,” Oak Harbor coach Jay Turner said. “You can’t really replace him. That being said, Mac did a great job.”
Nuanez, when called on to spell Lollar in previous games, played well. Coming into the game, the sophomore averaged 9.3 yards a carry on 19 rushes for 177 yards.
Turner pointed out that the two fullbacks accomplished similar results with opposite styles. Lollar, a 235-pound junior, “bulls through people,” Turner said. Nuanez, at 170 pounds, “uses his quickness.”
Meadowdale scored first. The Mavericks used their longest pass play (20 yards) and run (15 yards) of the first half and a penalty to go 50 yards and score with 8:20 left in the first period.
Harris returned the following kickoff 35 yards to the Meadowdale 35 yard line to set up Oak Harbor’s first score, a five-yard run by Nuanez. Eric Jensen kicked the PAT to tie the score with 5:24 left in the opening quarter.
After a Meadowdale punt, Oak Harbor when 70 yards in six plays to go up 14-7 on Nuanez’s 30 TD run.
Meadowdale had a great opportunity to score when it recovered a Wildcat fumble at the 32. But the Mavs went backward from there. Two penalties, a sack and a negative run made it fourth-and-43.
After a punt and twice failing to convert on fourth down, Oak Harbor scored just before halftime in what Turner called the key moment of the game.
The Wildcats covered 65 yards (10 of those twice because of a holding penalty) in just over a minute to score with only three seconds left in the first half to go up 21-7.
Quarterback Tyler Snavely hit Harris on passes of 33 and 30 yards, the latter for the TD, during the drive.
Snavely finished the night 5-for-8 for 86 yards, all to Harris.
Oak Harbor received the second-half kickoff and built upon its momentum. During the drive, Snavely connected three times with Harris, Passmore had a 37-yard run and Nuanez scored from the eight.
The Wildcats scored on their next four possessions.
Passmore’s 32-yard run set up a three-yard TD by Nuanez; then Harris ran 39 yards to set up another three-yard score by Nuanez. That made it 41-7.
Nuanez wasn’t the only reserve to have a good offense game. Meadowdale’s Maxwell Johnson took over at quarterback for Drew Tingstad in the third quarter and the Mavericks finally got into the plus column in yardage. He ran for 39 yards and passed for 44 on a drive that led to a Meadowdale score with 11:10 left in the fourth quarter.
Oak Harbor answered with Nuanez’s sixth TD, a 10-yard run.
Johnson then zipped 57 yards against the Oak Harbor reserves to make it 48-20.
Back-up running backs Mac Carr, Ryan Valencia and Taeson Hardin all contributed yardage to set up the Wildcats’ final touchdown, a 14-yard run by Andrew Miller. Spencer Champion took over the PAT duties from Jensen and booted the extra point.
Oak Harbor rolled up 495 yards rushing and 581 yards of total offense.
Meadowdale’s Johnson finished with 98 yards rushing and 58 yards passing for 156 yards, but Meadowdale ended the game with only 138 yards of total offense. Five other Maverick runners finished with a combined negative 43 yards.
Juanita
Jaunita placed second in Kingco to perennial power Bellevue.
The Rebels only losses came in a non-league game to 4A’s 10th-ranked Mountain View of Vancouver, 57-28, and to 3A’s second-ranked Bellevue, 42-14.
One win was by forfeit over Sammamish. In the six other wins, the Rebels outscored their opponents by an average of 45-14.
