An instant classic at Kitsap Bank Stadium could not be contained to your typical 48 minutes of football.
As Central Kitsap and South Kitsap traded a pair of turnovers in the first overtime and touchdowns in the second, the fate of the game would come down to which team would go for a two-point conversion.
Sean Banks and his SK coaching staff had that question posed to them in both double and triple overtime, and in the latter, they elected to put the game in the hands of the offense with the Wolves trailing by a point.
Junior quarterback Franklin Fox connected with a favorite target in senior wideout Noah Porter at the goal line. The receiver looked up just as the two arms of the nearby referee went up parallel to each other, and cheers erupted on the SK sideline and behind it in the bleachers.
The 36-35 win gave Banks his latest checkpoint in a quest to rebuild the Wolves football program, leading them to their first 3-0 start in over a decade. Early season wins against Kentridge and Mount Rainier had made their first meetup with the Cougars since the spring of 2021 a must-watch clash of former rivals.
The Cougars, still shaking off a bruising defeat to Olympic the week prior, had not made things easy early on with touchdowns on each of their first two drives. The Wolves offense would stall on its first series, but freshman kick returner Dyvonte Sellers took matters into his own hands with a touchdown return of over 95 yards.
The 14-7 Cougar lead held after one period was knotted back up in the second, this time by the SK defense on a pick-six from sophomore Josha Traslavina.
The Wolves then took their first lead of the night on a 50-yard connection between Fox and junior wide receiver Thomas Frei. But in the fourth quarter, crucial lost yardage took the Wolves out of field goal range. They were forced to punt, and the Cougar drove 78 yards in a little over two minutes to tie it up at 21-21.
Both teams got a crack at taking the lead back with less than a minute remaining. SK’s special teams came away with a block of a 42-yard field goal. A long completion and subsequent spike to stop the clock gave Wolves kicker RJ Grogan a similar shot, but he missed from 26 yards out.
SK will stay home for its league opener Sept. 27 against Sumner. CK will return to Silverdale for a Sept. 26 clash against Mount Tahoma.
