EDMONDS — Early in the game Oak Harbor trailed Meadowdale 7-0 and Wildcats starting fullback Princeton Lollar would soon head to the bench with a nagging injury from last week’s game.
In other words, Friday’s game did not start well for the Oak Harbor football team.
But backup fullback Mac Nuanez, a sophomore who has played mostly on defense this year, came off the bench in a big way for the Wildcats, rushing for 158 yards on 22 carries with six touchdowns, and Oak Harbor went on to dominate both lines of scrimmage in a 55-20 romp over the Mavericks in a Wesco 3A crossover game.
The victory, on a rainy night at Edmonds District Stadium, gives the Wildcats the Western Conference No. 3 berth in next week’s opening round of the state playoffs. Oak Harbor will host Juanita, the KingCo 3A No. 2 team.
“I thought we played hard,” Wildcats coach Jay Turner said. “We weren’t real clean the whole game — we had some penalties and some other things to work on — but we just kept battling. I was really pleased with how we played.”
Lollar was injured against Marysville Pilchuck a week ago and practiced sparingly as the team prepared for Meadowdale. He played in the first quarter, “but he just wasn’t able to continue,” Turner said.
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Nuanez got the call and made his presence felt immediately. On his second carry of the game he burst through a hole on the left side of the line for a 5-yard touchdown, and on his sixth carry he went 30 yards right up the middle for his second TD.
He would later added touchdown runs of 8, 3, 3 and 10 yards.
“Obviously you don’t replace Princeton Lollar,” Turner said of the 6-1, 235-pound junior. “Princeton’s a pretty special athlete. But we felt good with Mac coming in. He’s pretty quick, he hits the hole pretty fast, and he came in and did a great job.”
Also doing a great job was Oak Harbor’s offensive and defensive fronts. There were huge holes for all the running backs — Savion Hollins-Passmore had 114 yards on 10 carries and Dyllan Harris added 109 yards on 11 carries — as the Wildcats totaled 467 rushing yards. Quarterback Tyler Snavely added 86 yards and one touchdown through the air.
“We knew (controlling the line of scrimmage) was going to be a key coming in,” Turner said. “We had to have the line of scrimmage, both defensively and offensively.” And although Meadowdale had some success moving the ball early, “I thought our kids came out in the second half and kind of had a chip on their shoulders. I’m real pleased with how (the two lines) played in the second half.”
The Wildcats will have some momentum heading into next week’s home game against Juanita. Oak Harbor has won four in a row, is 6-2 overall, and Turner is seeing steady improvement.
“That’s what you always want,” he said. “You want to improve as the year goes on. We’re a real young team and we played a lot of inexperienced kids at the start of the year.
“But we just keep getting better every week and we’re real happy with where they’re at right now. But we’ve got to be better next week because Juanita’s going to be a real big challenge.”
As the Wesco No. 4, Meadowdale travels next week to play the South Puget Sound League 3A No. 2, either Auburn Mountainview or Lakes.
At Edmonds Stadium
Oak Harbor 14 7 20 14 —55
Meadowdale 7 0 0 13 —20
Mea—Kela Marshall 2 run (Julio Abad kick)
OH—Mac Nuanez 5 run (Eric Jensen kick)
OH—Nuanez 30 run (Jensen kick)
OH—Dyllan Harris 30 pass from Tyler Snavely (Jensen kick)
OH—Nuanez 8 run (Jensen kick)
OH—Nuanez 3 run (Jensen kick)
OH—Nuanez 3 run (kick failed)
Mead—Kela Marshall 2 run (Abad kick)
OH—Nuanez 10 run (kick failed)
Mead—Marshall 2 run (Abad kick)
Mead—Maxwell Johnson 57 run (kick failed)
OH—Andrew Miller 15 run (Jensen kick)
Records—Oak Harbor 6-2. Meadowdale 5-4
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