SHORELINE — Like his King’s teammates, Victor Quan got off to somewhat of a slow start against Darrington last weekend.
But the explosive junior running back more than made up for it.
Quan’s career-high 239 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries paced the Knights to their first win in three weeks, a 43-7 pounding of the winless Loggers Oct. 18 at Woolsey Stadium.
After finding little running room on his first six touches, Quan got loose for two big runs in the waning seconds of the first half to set up King’s go-ahead touchdown.
In the second half, Quan extended his team’s cushion with a pair of long-range touchdowns and the rest of his rushes went for no fewer than 10 yards.
“The coaches give really good advice to just have faith in what God wants,” Quan said. “They tell us to start fast and finish strong and we try to live up to that.”
With the victory, the Knights evened their overall record at 3-3. Only Chinook League games remain on King’s schedule, beginning with Charles Wright tonight.
Darrington had a chance to take the lead in the second quarter, but turned the ball over on downs at the King’s 24-yard line with 25 seconds left in the half. That was plenty of time for the Knights, who bolted across midfield on back-to-back first-down gains from Quan.
With 11 seconds to go, quarterback Chris Faidley hit Ryan Dixon on a slant and the junior wideout shook off two tacklers on his way to a 48-yard touchdown that put the Knights in front for good.
“Our plan was to move the ball and get into field goal range,” King’s coach Jim Shapiro said. “Chris just made a nice read across the middle.”
Quan came through again on the first play of the second half, weaving through traffic for a 61-yard touchdown to make it 19-7. A 17-yard run by Quan led to junior wingback Troy Mack’s second touchdown, a 6-yard burst up the gut at the 4:35 mark of the third quarter.
Two minutes later, Quan added a 41-yard TD sprint and Faidley found Holland Smith for the two-point conversion pass.
“Victor has great vision,” Shapiro said. “If he gets through the line, he can break off some big runs.”
King’s outgained the Loggers 190 yards to 24 in the decisive third quarter. Cornerback Robb Waldburger ended Darrington’s first possession of the second half with a leaping interception and the Loggers saw their best drive of the half disappear on downs at the King’s 26 with nine seconds to go in the third quarter.
Andrew Lutton tacked on a 35-yard field goal for the Knights with eight minutes remaining and junior John Casey’s 62-yard TD run with 5:50 to go capped the scoring. Utilizing a variety of offensive formations, King’s scored on five of its six second-half possessions.
“Especially in the second and third quarter, we made some good adjustments to our blocking scheme,” Shapiro said. “They were doing a good job stopping us on the perimeter, so we started running off tackle more.
“Every time we got the ball, we were trying to score. We needed to see some success tonight.”
The Knights racked up 371 rushing yards and Faidley completed two of his six passes for 63 yards with an interception. On defense, inside linebacker Brady Butler led King’s with 13 tackles.
James Dolph provided 90 of Darrington’s 96 first-half rushing yards on 22 carries and finished with a team-high 120 yards on 29 attempts. The Loggers collected 96 of their 150 rushing yards in the first half.
King’s opened league play with a 42-7 loss to reigning champion Cascade Christian two weeks ago. While the sixth-ranked Cougars are favored to defend their title, it’s less clear who will emerge with the Chinook League’s remaining 1A state playoff berth.
“Every game night from now on is a league game. Every game means something,” Shapiro said. “We’re not of out it at all.”
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