Oak Harbor feels right at home in win

Published 10:52 pm Saturday, November 3, 2007

OAK HARBOR — The highway was dotted with gold and purple flags. A bush on a residential street featured Christmas lights of the same color. A sea of gold and purple swarmed the stands and its constant chatter forced three false start penalties on the opposing team.

No, this wasn’t Husky Stadium — this was Memorial Stadium in Oak Harbor, where the defending 4A state champions Wildcats put their perfect 2007 record on the line Saturday.

And the Oak Harbor defended their turf, downing the Bellarmine Prep Lions 20-10 to advance to the first round of the state on the road next weekend.

“It’s awesome, it’s an adrenaline rush,” Wildcats quarterback Johnny Encinas said. “It’s our first playoff game ever in Oak Harbor — we always had to travel. It was awesome — definitely an experience I’ll always remember.”

For a while, however, it wasn’t clear which Oak Harbor team had shown up. Bellarmine Prep led 10-7 at the half as the Wildcats looked out of sync.

“I think we were looking past (Bellarmine) and they were ready to play,” Oak Harbor coach Dave Ward said.

Bellarmine Prep was indeed ready and came out aggressively from the opening kickoff. Dan Durkin caught the ball, then handed it off to Patrick Shine on the reverse. Shine raced 81 yards up the right sideline before he was finally taken down at the Oak Harbor 6-yard line. They were unable to pick any more yards, however, and had to settle for a Robert Guernsey 25-yard field goal and the early 3-0 lead, having taken just 1:57 off the clock.

Oak Harbor quickly answered, driving 68 yards on eight plays punctuated with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Johnny Encinas to Michael Bell with 7:30 left in the opening quarter.

Neither team could sustain a drive after that point for nearly the remainder of the half. Just before halftime, Bellarmine Prep quarterback Lucas Schindele broke through a hole in the middle and rushed 18 yards to the Oak Harbor 2-yard line. Schindele was shaken up on the play, but backup quarterback Rick Miller scored on a 2-yard keeper on the next play to put the Lions up 10-7 at the half.

But Oak Harbor has shown itself to be a strong second-half team all season and Saturday night was no exception.

The Wildcats gave up a fumble on their first possession of the half, but DeVante Young recovered a Bellarmine Prep fumble two minutes later to change the tide of the game.

“That was a huge play — you could just feel the lift on the sidelines,” Ward said. “We talked about turnovers at halftime and said it was time for us to create something and then bang it happens. The guys said, ‘All right, now we’re gonna get going.’ “

A pass interference call on the Lions gave the Wildcats the ball at Bellarmine Prep’s 15-yard line. After running the ball for losses of 4 and 3 yards, Encinas connected with Rodrick Rumble for a 26-yard touchdown score that put the Wildcats up 14-10.

Oak Harbor did indeed seem to relax once they secured the lead, and the defense came up big time after time for the rest of the contest.

“Our defense definitely gets overlooked by the offense because we’ve been scoring so many points,” Encinas said. “But I think defense is our strong point.”

Encinas finished 17-for-31 passing for 240 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. His passes were fairly evenly distributed as he hit six different receivers at least twice.

At Oak Harbor Memorial Stadium

Bellarmine Prep3700—10

Oak Harbor70130—20

BP—fg Guernsey 25

OH—Bell 5 pass from Encinas (Johnston kick)

BP—Miller 2 run (McDonald kick)

OH—Rumble 26 pass from Encinas (Johnston kick)

OH—Valencia 16 run (kick blocked)

Records—Oak Harbor: 10-0 overall. Bellarmine Prep: 6-4.