SEATTLE – In an extremely evenly matched game, King’s squeaked out a 28-26 victory over Nooksack Valley at Woolsey Stadium on Friday night.
The Pioneers fumbled the opening kickoff, and the Knights took advantage right away by recovering and scoring three plays later on an 8-yard touchdown pass.
After trading possessions, Nooksack Valley tied it up at the end of the first quarter with a strong drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Jackson Bennett on a fly sweep.
King’s was stopped on the following drive, and turned the ball over on downs on the Pioneer 47-yard line. This time it was Nooksack Valley which capitalized, and scored the following play on a 53-yard run by Colton Lentz.
The 215-pound junior running back finished with a game-high 126 yards on 15 carries, and also went over the 2,000 yard plateau for his career.
The Knights were forced to punt, and it was a great one that pinned the Pioneers deep, which was important because King’s intercepted a Nooksack Valley pass two plays later to regain possession inside the red zone.
The following play resulted in an 18-yard touchdown run, but a bad snap on the extra point meant that Nooksack Valley held on to a 14-13 lead.
The Pioneer lead didn’t last long, however, as the Knights scored on their next possession, this time from 17 yards out, and with 1:06 left until halftime, and King’s took a 19-14 advantage.
Nooskack Valley ran its two-minute offense to perfection, and was able to score on a Joey Brown touchdown run for 14 yards out with 11 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The 2-point conversion failed, but the Pioneers went into the locker room with a 20-19 lead.
Both teams scored short touchdowns in the third quarter, and both teams were again stopped on two-point tries after each touchdown. Nooksack Valley held the 26-25 advantage going into the final period.
King’s attempted a 35-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, but the attempt to take the lead was no good, and the Pioneers took over at their own 20-yard line.
Nooksack Valley then went 3-and-out and was forced to punt that ball back to the Knights. King’s methodically drove down the field, and took multiple minutes off the clock. This time, they were set up with a better field goal attempt, now from 24 yards away, and this time it was successful with 2:49 left in the game. The Knights had taken the lead at 28-26.
The Pioneers were turned away on fourth down on the ensuing possession, but still had all three of their timeouts.
They burned two of them immediately after two run plays by King’s that didn’t amount to much. A third-down pass attempt was incomplete, and the Knights were forced to punt the ball back to Nooskack Valley. A short punt was snatched out of the air by junior Cory Olney, who was able to return it 14 yards to the Pioneer 45-yard line with 1:14 left in the game.
Some good runs, mixed with Brown’s scrambling ability, got Nooksack Valley near field goal range. On 4th-and-7, from the King’s 29-yard line, Brown rolled to his left, avoided defenders, and completed a 22-yard pass to Bennett who was able to get out of bounds with 41 seconds left in the game. It had appeared that the Pioneers were able to get the first down, and that they were set up nicely for a possible game-winning score, but a holding penalty negated the play and the Knights were able to hold on to the victory.
Nooksack Valley was led defensively by Lentz who had eight tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass broken up. Senior defensive tackle Cian Coppinger had three stops behind the line of scrimmage, junior cornerback Evan Bravo intercepted a pass and there were quarterback sacks from Dalton Hickey, Duke Halaapiapi, Brady Ackerman and Skyler Whittern.
The Pioneers (2-1) will be back home on Friday when they face Hoquiam (1-2) at 7:00.
King's 28 Nooksack Valley 26 NV 7 13 6 0 - 26 K 7 12 6 3 - 28 K - 8 yard touchdown pass (kick good) NV - Bennett 3 run (Vigre kick) NV - Lentz 53 run (Vigre kick) K - 18 yard touchdown run (pass failed) K - 17 yard touchdown pass (pass failed) NV - J. Brown 14 run (run failed) K - 8 yard touchdown pass (pass failed) NV - J. Brown 6 run (run failed) K - 24 yard field goal NV K 42-260 Rush Att-Yards 32-57 6-15-1 Comp-Att-Int 16-36-1 71 Passing Yards 270 Individual Leaders RUSHING - NV: Lentz 15-126, J. Brown 14-65, Whittern 8-53, Olney 2-10, Bennett 3-6. K: N/A. PASSING - NV: J. Brown 6-15-1-71. K: N/A. RECEIVING - NV: Olney 3-22, Bennett 2-33, Silves 1-16. K: N/A.
