BREMERTON — There is an old saying: If you can’t beat them in the alley, you won’t beat them on the gridiron.
Olympic Coach Sal Quitevis Jr. concurred.
“I think we definitely controlled the line of scrimmage,” he said.
The result was a football game that wasn’t as close as it looked, as Olympic won the 2A Olympic League season opener 18-6, beating the Bremerton Knights at Silverdale Stadium on Sept. 16.
Bremerton Coach Paul Theriault could afford to take the long view.
“We’re getting there,” Theriault said. “Last year they beat us 33-0, so we’ve made progress.”
The Knights might have made a bit more progress, as running back Dyemante Hall had an outstanding game, coming within literally millimeters of scoring with 16 seconds in the first half but was unable to succeed on a fourth-and-1-inch dive. A score at that point could have put the Knights ahead, but being denied on that play seemingly took the wind out of them in the second half.
Bremerton rang up three interceptions and held the Knights to no score in the second half. Hall did finally score late in the game on a 4-yard run with the Trojans protecting an 18-0 lead.
But this game really belonged to Olympic running back Logan Madison, who finished with three touchdowns and took full advantage of a hard-nosed offensive line to punch open running lanes.
The offensive unit that made the holes happen for Madison include Chayse Becar, Darrian Carrier, Gabe Fuiava, Tommy Hernandez and Deon Wilder.
In an unusual future trivia item, this game ended with neither team being able to score an extra point — on each touchdown, the teams elected to go for two extra points, and neither succeeded.
Next: Olympic heads up the road to Poulsbo to take on North Kitsap (3-0, 1-0) in a neutral conference game on Sept. 23.
Quitevis said his guys are ready.
“We don’t feel we need to change our defensive philosophy. We found out we could control the line of scrimmage. The game against North Kitsap should be exciting.”
The Knights (1-2, 0-1 in league) take on Sequim (2-0, 1-0 in league) at home on the 23rd.
OLYMPIC 18, BREMERTON 6
