Blaine Opens With Home Loss

BLAINE – Costly mistakes by the Borderites allowed the Roughriders to play with a short field for most of the first half, and Port Angeles took advantage as it beat Blaine 44-21 on Friday night.

The Borderites did make the first play of the game when junior linebacker Blake Koreski forced a fumble at the Blaine 1-yard line, which senior defensive tackle Victor Gervol recovered. However, just a few plays later, the Roughriders were up 9-0 after scoring a safety, and then they hit on a deep touchdown pass down the middle of the field.

The Borderites turned the ball over twice early in the second quarter, which allowed two quick Roughrider touchdown runs.

Blaine countered with a strong kickoff return by senior Justin Minjarez, who brought the ball nearly to midfield, and a 29-yard pitch and catch from junior quarterback Colin Davis to senior wide receiver Riley Ihde. A few plays later, Ihde lined up at quarterback and snuck the ball in from the 1-yard line to get the Borderites on the board with 49 seconds until halftime.

With the score 23-7 going into halftime, Blaine was still very much in the game. But, Port Angeles used those 49 seconds very well, and was able to put across one more score before intermission.

To make things worse for the hometown crowd, the Roughriders also returned the second half kickoff for a touchdown.

The Borderites kept fighting throughout the rest of the game, and found the end zone twice more before the final buzzer. Both on passes from Davis to Ihde.

Davis finished with 191 yards on 15-of-29 passing, and Ihde caught six passes for 113 yards and scored all three of Blaine’s touchdowns.

Ihde also led the Borderites in tackles with 7.5, while Koreski finished with six tackles, a forced fumble and an interception, and junior defensive end Zi Yu had 3.5 tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Blaine (0-1) will travel to Sehome (1-0) next week to take on the Mariners on Thursday at 7:00 at Civic Stadium.

Port Angeles       44
Blaine             21  

PA       9    21    14     0  - 44
BLA      0     7     0    14  - 21

PA - Safety
PA - 45 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
PA - 3 yard touchdown run (kick good)
PA - 10 yard touchdown run (kick good)
BLA - Ihde 1 run (Hayes kick)
PA - 2 yard touchdown run (kick good)
PA - 77 yard kickoff return for a touchdown (kick good)
PA - 6 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
BLA - Ihde 4 pass from Davis (Hayes kick)
BLA - Ihde 26 pass from Davis (Hayes kick)

PA                          BLA
36-116   Rush Att-Yards     27-29
8-16-1   Comp-Att-Int       17-33-4
132      Passing Yards      215

Individual Leaders
   RUSHING - PA: N/A. BLA: Davis 11-26, Paez 3-10, Shipp 5-(-2), Ihde 8-(-5).
   PASSING - PA: N/A. BLA: Davis 15-29-4-191, Ihde 2-4-0-24.
   RECEIVING - PA: N/A. BLA: Ihde 6-113, Deming 3-28, Kerwin 3-20, Vezzetti 2-27, Paez 2-1, Bouma 1-26.