The Vashon football Pirates continued their winless season Friday night in Port Townsend with 13-40 loss to the Redhawks. The game followed a familiar pattern from the first four games of the season, with an encouraging first quarter and a strong start. But as the game wore on, Port Townsend ran over the VHS team, taking advantage of errors and building momentum.
The first quarter was encouraging. The Pirates got a couple of first downs, which have been in short supply so far this season. Senior Sol Dehnert played quarterback again and made some nice runs. There were a couple of highlights for the Pirates, including junior Jack Cunningham making a tackle in the backfield for an 8-yard loss for Port Townsend, as well as a recovered fumble. But the Vashon team was not able to take advantage of the gains: twice unable to get close enough to score and kicker Richard Rivas-Gutierrez missed challenging field goal attempts. But the Pirates fielded some nice defense and held the Redhawks back from any kind of domination. At the end of the first quarter the score was 7-0.
The second quarter included some great kick returns by Moses Kilpatrick, a recovered fumble by Yuri Coucoules and Will Hennessey blocking the kick on an extra point attempt. But the highlight of the quarter was when longtime Pirate, senior Jake Carman, was able to take advantage of a Redhawks’ fumble as it bounced into the end zone, giving the Pirates their fourth touchdown of the season. Still, the Pirates then fell back again, as Port Townsend made an interception for a touchdown. At halftime it was 20-7.
The third quarter started off with a whimper as Vashon turned the ball over with a fumble on a kick return. The Redhawks quickly capitalized with a score off a long pass for a 27-7 lead. There were an array of penalties against both teams in the quarter, but Port Townsend scored again, and at the end of three, it was 33-7.
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Pirates were fighting exhaustion. At the get-go, the Redhawks ran back a kickoff return of 97 yards for a touchdown, bringing the score to 40-7. However, the Pirates did not give up. They worked the ball down the field halfway through the quarter and got in touchdown position. Frequently this season, Vashon has been unable to capitalize on these opportunities, but they pushed one through this time, when quarterback Dehnert managed a great run in for a touchdown. That brought the final score to 40-13.
Nice moments in the game came from Kilpatrick, Cunningham, Jonathan Quintans and Ryan Nelson. Substitute quarterback Dehnert did a great job of filling in, though he was mostly running and the Pirates didn’t see a lot of complete passes. One of the brightest spots for the season continues to be kicker, defensive player and running back Rivas-Gutierrez, who ran for a lot of yards Friday night before Port Townsend caught on and shut him down.
The Pirates have struggled this season with an uneven offense, key errors and defense that is worn down as the games go on. They often have fewer players than the other teams and the players are much smaller. But Port Townsend had a similar roster in terms of the number of players and also numbers of upperclassmen, and they clearly outmatched Vashon.
But this team does not give up, and it still has shining moments. The players continue to hold their heads high and will try again next game.
The Pirates play next on Friday night at home against Klahowya.
— Lauri Hennessey is the parent of a Pirate football player.
