Naselle player posts - Week 8

The First Playoff Game... Basically

Our attitude last night at Rueben Pentilla field was one of urgency. To make the playoffs we needed to win last night. Our coaches preached that it was the first playoff game and that we needed to play like it. We came out firing and Tony Fletcher scored the first touchdown of the game via a Austin Burkhalter pass. However, North Beach had a good offensive night too. The Hyaks offensive line were beastly, we even put in a new scheme to try to stop them. Well, lets say it slowed them down. They scored their first touchdown too. The first half was a volley of scores. We had a less than comfortable lead of 2 at the break. Our offensive line played great and Fletcher and Nick Hines ran well too. Hines had ran for 108 yards on 10 carries and Fletcher added 60 on 12. Austin Burkhalter had his best passing game of the year, passing for two touchdowns and completing 7 of 10 attempts. Halftime was long due to the homecoming events, but the talk in the locker room was no less serious. Many of the defenders were talking about how to stop this and that. We probably said, "We have to finish!" like 100 times during the half way-point.

We kicked off the ball to start the second half, but regained possession quickly when a Hyak RB fumbled. We capitalized and drove the distance to paydirt. Our lead was now nine. On the ensuing Hyak possession, they continued their dive, off-tackle and counter plays and scored their 4th touchdown. We didn't play our greatest defensive game by any means, but we managed to slow them down enough to pull out a victory. Right now the only thing we care about is the "W" in the left column. We were down with around 5:00 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The first two plays went for about 8 yards, but then Hines broke out with a 54 yard touchdown run, which put us ahead 37-35. The Hyaks had four minutes for their final possession. They moved the ball to our 10 yard line after a 15 yard pass interference penalty. The North Beach coaches brought out the field goal unit. The kicker missed wide left by only about 2 feet. We had won!.

Next week we travel to South Bend. We will need to bring our "A" game, considering we are yet to win away and a loss could cost us our playoff chance.

NHS LB,FB
Alan Erickson