Oak Harbor dominates Seagulls 47-14

Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 23, 2011

EVERETT — Everett head football coach Will Soren received some bad news before Friday night’s game even got started.

It only got worse after the first play.

After ruling starting running back Blake Williams out for the game during pregame warmups, Soren watched as his Seagulls coughed up the ball on the first play, starting a cascade of Oak Harbor points in the Wildcats’ 47-14 win in what was billed as a Wesco 3A showdown between two unbeaten teams.

“That first play did take the air out of us for a quick second,” Soren said. “That’s not really the way we wanted to start. But we have to be ready for any situation.”

One play after Everett’s fumble, Oak Harbor running back Josiah Miller scooted around the right end untouched for a 25-yard touchdown and the rout was on. Oak Harbor would score three more touchdowns — all on the ground — to go up 26-0 early in the second quarter.

“We knew coming in that Everett was a dangerous team,” said Oak Harbor head coach Jay Turner. “We didn’t want them to get any momentum going.”

Behind the running of Brent Ryan and Josiah Miller, Oak Harbor put up 340 rush yards in the first half and outscored Everett 40-7. The Wildcats had five plays of 45 yards or more in the first half, including touchdown runs of 66 and 50 yards by Miller and Ryan, respectively.

Ryan finished with 233 yards and three touchdowns on the ground for Oak Harbor, a number coming at the expense of Seagulls tacklers who on a number of plays took the brunt of the collision with the 220-pound back.

“It feels good any time you run over somebody and break tackles,” said Ryan.

The Yin to Ryan’s punishing Yang was Miller. Despite the fact Everett’s defense keyed on the shifty senior for much of the game and stopped him on a number of sweep plays, Miller used his breakaway speed to wind his way for a number of big plays, including a 45-yard catch and run late in the first half to put the Wildcats up 33-7.

“They did a pretty good job of slowing down Josiah on the outside,” Turner said, “so we had to go to the other part of the game plan and that was to let Brent carry the load for us.”

Slowing down Miller was relative. The Oak Harbor running back carried the ball 12 times for 146 yards and caught one pass for 45 yards.

Everett missed its leading ballcarrier Williams, who Soren said tweaked his knee in last weekend’s game against Lynnwood. Williams, who has rushed for 454 yards and seven touchdowns in the first three games, didn’t practice all week, but Soren said he was holding out hope the senior back was going to be able to play Friday night. But Williams tested his knee before the game and was ruled out.

“It was a big deal (missing Blake) because he’s a big part of our game plan,” Soren said. “But we have some other players out here who I expect to step up and they’ll do that.”

Soren said he expects Williams to be back next week in Everett’s game against Shorecrest.

If not having Williams wasn’t enough, Everett also lost running back and linebacker Connor Boyce to a leg injury in the second quarter of the game. After being helped off the field by trainers, Boyce spent the rest of the game on the sidelines with an ice pack on his lower left leg.

Oak Harbor ended up putting up 548 total yards — 457 on the ground — to Everett’s 200. Wildcats quarterback Ian Kolste was 2-for-3 for 91 yards, with both completions going for long touchdowns.

The Seagulls, who roared from behind to win their previous two games, couldn’t mount the comeback Friday night. Everett QB Riley Ayers did have nice game, though, tossing a 44-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wise and running in a touchdown from 13 yards out in the fourth quarter.

At Everett Memorial Stadium

Oak Harbor 7 33 7 0 — 47

Everett 0 7 0 7 — 14

OH–Miller 25 yard run (Franssen kick)

OH–Ryan 1 yard run (kick failed)

OH–Miller 66 yard run (run failed)

OH–Ryan 50 yard run (Franssen kick)

E–Wise 44 yard reception from Ayers (Robinson kick)

OH–Miller 45 yard reception from Kolste (Franssen kick)

OH–Trower 46 yard reception from Kolste (Franssen kick)

OH–Ryan 4 yard run (Franssen kick)

E–Ayers 13 yd run (Robinson kick)

Records–Oak Harbor 4-0 league, 4-0 overall. Everett 2-1, 3-1.