SEATTLE – The Pioneers were held scoreless in the first half, and scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t complete the comeback on the road as they lost their first game of the season 22-19 against King’s at Woolsey Stadium on Friday night.
Nooksack Valley was without two of its most explosive players in Matthew Blake and Jaden Jones, who have combined for four touchdowns so far this season, and it took a while for the Pioneer offense to get on track.
The Knights possessed the ball first, and were turned away on downs when junior strong safety Max Lautenbach broke up a fourth-down pass, but Nooksack Valley gave it right back after turning the ball over on downs inside the 5-yard line.
King’s drove the length of the field, this time converted on a 4th-and-short play, and eventually scored on a 12-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.
The Pioneers were forced to punt on the following drive, but then forced an incomplete pass on fourth down to get the ball back. Nooksack Valley started to get a drive going, but a desperation pass into the endzone as time expired in the first half was intercepted and the Knights held an 8-0 lead at halftime.
Both teams traded punts to begin the third quarter, but it was a 41-yard punt return by Tyler Martin that set up the Pioneers with their best field position of the game. It ended up turning into points as Martin took to the field once again to boot a 20-yard field goal.
Nooksack Valley had a little momentum going, and it got even stronger after forcing another three-and-out, but an interception by King’s gave the Knights great field position, and a few plays later an amazing one-handed catch resulted in a 19-yard touchdowns for King’s, who now held a 14-3 advantage.
The Pioneers meant business on their next drive, and leaned heavily on senior wide receiver Cole Coppinger who caught four straight passes on the drive, with the fourth being a 33-yard touchdown from senior quarterback Evan Brown. Coppinger even caught the two-point conversion to make it a 14-11 game early in the fourth quarter.
Coppinger finished with six catches for 85 yards.
The Knights put together a strong drive through the air that took less than two minutes off the clock, and resulted in a 36-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion was good, and King’s held a 22-11 lead with about nine minutes to go in the game.
Knowing that two scores would be needed to win the game, Nooksack Valley promptly went on the attack with numerous passes hitting different receivers. Junior tight end Dane Ackerman hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Brown with 6:09 left in the game, and Martin’s two-point reception made it a three-point game.
King’s hadn’t ran the ball efficiently throughout the game, but needed to try something to run out the clock. It was found with quarterback runs up the middle. The Knights quarterback picked up first down after first down, without a long run, but enough to move the chains and eventually run out the clock on the Pioneers.
The Nooksack Valley defense was led by senior linebackers Jaxon Hester and Andrew Dugger, each of whom had 10.5 tackles. Lautenbach finished with 8.5 stops and four passes broken up, and senior defensive tackle Gabe Snyders had 6.5 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback sack.
The Pioneers (2-1) will be back home on Friday when they take on 2A juggernaut Tumwater (2-1) at 7:00.
King's 22 Nooksack Valley 19 NV 0 0 3 16 - 19 KI 0 8 6 8 - 22 KI - 12 yard touchdown pass (2pt run good) NV - Martin 20 FG KI - 19 yard touchdown pass (pass failed) NV - Coppinger 33 pass from Brown (Coppinger pass from Brown) KI - 36 yard touchdown pass (2pt pass good) NV - Ackerman 12 pass from Brown (Martin pass from Brown) NV KI 15-35 Rush Att-Yards 38-89 15-30-2 Comp-Att-Int 12-21-0 190 Passing Yards 189 Individual Leaders RUSHING - NV: Heutink 13-37, Brown 2-(-2). KI: N/A. PASSING - NV: Brown 15-30-2-190. KI: N/A. RECEIVING - NV: Coppinger 6-85, Ackerman 4-43, Hester 2-26, Martin 2-18, Leyerly 1-18. KI: N/A.
