BREMERTON — In the game of football, you can’t get much closer to scoring a touchdown than pushing the ball all the way to the 1-yard line.
But in their 48-0 Friday night loss to the North Kitsap Vikings, that’s as far as the Bremerton Knights got.
After the Vikings (5-0 overall, 3-0 league) ripped off a quick, four-play, 55-second scoring drive to start the game, Bremerton (0-5, 0-3) marched the ball all the way down the field.
Running back Robbie Robinson and quarterback Jeff Frankeberger bruised their way with a series of short running plays 73 yards within inches of the end zone.
On third down, Bremerton lined up against the Viking defense, and Frankeberger called for the snap. With a twist of his body, he faked a handoff and tucked the ball against his ribs, trying to sneak it across the goal line.
Stopped.
Bremerton coach Mike McKnight quickly called for a timeout.
For the first time in their five games this year, Bremerton had a chance to score in the first half. All year, they have only scored 19 points.
The Knights talked over the play and lined up again.
Frankeberger ran the same play.
Stopped again.
Both McKnight and Viking’s coach Jerry Parrish called that moment the turning point of the entire ball game.
“We had the momentum,” said Frankeberger, “but we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Added Parrish of his North Kitsap squad, “They felt then that they had to play, not just show up and expect for everything to happen.”
All in all, the Vikings gained 317 yards of total offense on the night. The Knights racked up 278.
Although North’s 6-foot-3 quarterback Jared Prince is known for his rocket-launcher of an arm, he only passed the ball 13 times for 132 yards on the night. It was the pedaling, scrambling running games of Andy Sturza and Nic Stearns that really threw the Knights for a loop.
“That’s probably the fastest North team I have seen in a while,” said McKnight.
Just like the potent South Kitsap offense, Stearns and Sturza ploughed on angle routes near the sideline behind solid blocking.
“We get complacent every once in a while. That was obvious from our running backs early,” Parrish said. “Then they decided they’d better get to work.”
For Bremerton running backs Robinson and Ian Mateikat, a run through the middle was as easy as ploughing into concrete.
“It’s the same old story,” said McKnight, as the teams filed off the field after the game. “We got close to scoring a few touchdowns, we showed them we could play well, but we just sort of ran out of gas.”
Leading the Vikings was Sturza’s 124 yards of offense. For the Knights, Frankeberger threw 6 passes for 102 yards.
Even though the Knights held the Vikings for 7 points in the first quarter, the North Kitsap boys lit a 21-point scoring fire in the second quarter. Jeremiah Doehn ran a touchdown in from four yards out.
Prince threw a 25-yard TD pass over Jordan Henry’s shoulder into the left corner of the endzone.
Then Sturza slipped through the Knights secondary with a 20-yard run.
Following that series of plays, Parrish took out his starting quarterback to give sophomore Jeff Ottele a chance at the helm.
Frankeberger took a hard bump on the elbow a few minutes later, sending him out of the game as well.
In came sophomore Moses Lovinaria, but up 48-0 in the final quarter, the Vikings had already sailed away with a win under the Memorial Stadium lights.
The Knights travel to Central Kitsap to take on the Cougars, Friday Oct 10. at 7 p.m. while the Vikings host South Kitsap Wolves in a battle for Bridge Division supremacy. North and South (3-1 overall) are each undefeated in league contests, tied with Shelton (3-0, 4-1) for the top spot.
