Lopez Lobos played a slippery. mud-filled football game against the Lummi Blackhawks on Lopez home turf on Saturday, Oct 4.
The Lobos exploded onto the scoreboard with a 80 yard punt return by Tucker Hoffman that earned them their first 6 points, but the Lummi team was quick to answer, driving down the field and going into the end zone just as quickly on the next set of downs. Tommy Kramer had a spectacular tackle during the scoring drive by the Blackhawks and the Blackhawk two point try was no good, making the score in the first five minutes 6-6.
Lummi kicked off to Lopez and Kramer carried the ball into Blackhawk territory for a 15 yard gain, followed up by Mica Arps for a six yard carry as well. Kevin Dengler then drove it in for six points, making the score in the first quarter 12-6, Lopez. The two point conversion was broken up on the carry by the Blackhawks. Lopez kicked off to Lummi in driving rain and in the pile up there was a fumble, but the Blackhawks recovered the ball on their 40 yard line after a great tackle by Kramer. Lopez had a face mask penalty and the first down was re-played, and despite another brutal tackle by Dengler, the Lummi offense was hard to stop. The Lobos shook up the Lummi quarterback on the two point conversion and stopped those points going in.
Both sides missed tackles due to the wet and threw wild passes that were caught by the wind, almost causing interceptions.
Later in the second quarter, Colton Jardine intercepted a pass intended for a Blackhawk receiver, but though the Lobo offense had possession they were shut down by the Lummi defense at the 20 yard line. Lopez kicked off to Lummi and Lopez recovered a fumble on the Blackhawk 40 yard line; Jardine threw a 20 yard pass to Arps, and the Lobos continued to gain yardage which resulted in another first down and another pass taken by Mica Arps into the Blackhawk end zone. The two point conversion was broken up by a Lummi defender at the two yard line. The Blackhawks then maintained posssession of the ball for a series of downs, finally running the ball into the end zone after a series of failed fourth downs. Again, penalties allowed the Blackhawks several attempts to get the ball in and they made good on their advantage.
The start of the third quarter saw the Blackhawks leading the Lobos by 8 points, making the score 18-26, but Lopez refused to stay down. Though the rain had stopped, both quarterbacks were now faced with driving wind and dropping temps. Lummi dominated both the third and fourth quarters, amassing yardage and maintaining possession of the ball, and finally scoring once more, making the game score at the end of the fourth quarter 18-34.
Coach Berg said, “We were plagued by penalties for face masks, and offsides, and we had three procedure penalties that cost us yardage. Also we had five fumbles and the other team scored twice off of those mistakes. We can do better at that, but given the circumstances and the caliber of team we were playing, our guys just did a great job. I’m very proud of them.”
Highlights for the Lobos include the fantastic 80 yard kick off return and touch down by Hoffman in the opening play of the game. Kevin Dengler had a 20 yard run into the end zone, and Mica Arps had a touch down in the second quarter for the Lobos. Defensively, the Lobos had plenty of tackles. Mica Arps led the team with 12 tackles, Tucker Hoffman had 11 tackles, Kevin Dengler nine, Leland Nopson had six tackles and one fumble recovery, and Colton Jardine, quarterback for the Lobos, had five tackles and one interception for a gain of 25 yards.
The Lobos carried the ball 13 times for a total of 100 yards running and passing yardage overall was 57 yards. Colton Jardine was 6/10 for 57 yards in the air and also scored a touchdown. The Lopez Lobos play again at Lopez on Oct. 11 against Clallam Bay at 2 p.m.
