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Post by GridironBeez on Nov 29, 2011 14:46:16 GMT -5
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Post by GridironBeez on Dec 1, 2011 11:51:51 GMT -5
Neah Bay seeking elusive Class 1B state football championship
Peninsula Daily News
TACOMA — Neah Bay has never won a state championship in football.
The Red Devils (11-2) have a good opportunity to get over that last hurdle as they play for all the Class 1B marbles at the 2011 Gridiron Classic in the Tacoma Dome at 4 p.m. on Friday.
“We’re just one win away,” Neah Bay coach Tony McCaulley said.
They have already dispatched previously undefeated nemesis Lummi, the defending state champion and No. 1-ranked team, 58-40 in the quarterfinals.
That was a big hurdle because the Blackhawks had beaten the Red Devils six straight times, including twice this season and in the state semifinals in the past two years.
In the 2011 semifinals Saturday, a tired but game Neah Bay ripped Odessa-Harrington 74-34 in a contest that ended early in the third quarter because of the 40-point mercy rule.
Friday’s opponent won’t be so easy to beat, though.
The Almira Coulee Hartline Warriors are 13-0 and are considered the top-ranked team after Lummi lost.
Like the Red Devils, the Warriors have been unstoppable in the playoffs, pounding Pomeroy 46-6 in the semifinals after ripping Touchet 52-8 in the quarterfinals.
Touchet is the last team Neah Bay has faced in the state title game. That was a close affair with Touchet winning 42-36 in 1999.
The Red Devils have finished second twice and lost in the semifinals four times.
Almira, meanwhile, has one state title to its credit — in 2007 — and has never faced the Red Devils in the playoffs.
Speed defines the 2011 version of the Warriors.
“They are a good football team,” McCaulley said.
“Their quarterback is a speedy guy. He’s 175 pounds and he is fast.”
Senior Derek Isaak will be hard to stop because he has a 6-foot-2 frame to go with that speed and weight.
But the Red Devils will counter with a quarterback who is equally hard to stop, 6-foot, 176-pound sophomore Josiah Greene — who had four touchdown runs, a touchdown pass and a fumble recovery for a score and 231 yards on the ground against Odessa in the semifinals.
“We’re pretty set there at quarterback,” McCaulley said.
Almira also has a fast starting running back, McCaulley said.
“They throw the ball more than us, they spread you out and they like to run away from you.”
Neah Bay is used to throwing teams. Odessa passed the ball for 312 yards last weekend and Lummi likes to spread the field and throw the ball.
“In eight-man football, it’s all about matchups,” McCaulley said. “You are going to get burned once in a while.”
Physically, the Red Devils out-matched Odessa in size but Almira is closer to them size-wise.
“I think we are a little bit bigger but they are not much behind us in size.
“I think it will be a pretty good matchup.”
The Red Devils will have a building to go around at times, though, in senior nose guard Jordan Ping, who is 6-4 and 245 pounds.
Almira will be a little more experienced when the starting teams are on the field.
“All their starters are juniors and seniors,” McCaulley said.
The Red Devils, meanwhile, have several underclassmen as starters, including Greene, who is playing like a senior.
And then there’s senior Titus Pascua, who has had an outstanding four-year career but has been playing lights-out in the playoffs.
“We need one more out of him,” McCaulley said about his star senior.
Pascua had three touchdowns in the semifinals, one rushing, one on a pass reception and the other an 88-yard kickoff return for a score.
Good news for the Red Devilas is that they are healthy going into the game.
Junior linebacker Leyton Doherty is expected to play after hurting his shoulder while intercepting a key pass in the semifinals last weekend.
“He’s walking around and he looks pretty good,” McCaulley said about Doherty.
And now there’s just a little matter of the Neah Bay history books.
After a tough 13-game season, the Red Devils are just one victory away from re-writing those books and gaining that elusive state-title trophy.
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Post by GridironBeez on Dec 2, 2011 17:44:29 GMT -5
Neah Bay plays for Class 1B state football championship Friday
Peninsula Daily News
TACOMA — Neah Bay is the last football team standing on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Red Devils, 11-2, will end their outstanding season today at least as the second-best team in Class 1B.
But second-best isn’t their goal as they play undefeated and top-ranked Almira Coulee Hartline (13-0) for the state championship in the Gridiron Classic at the Tacoma Dome starting at 4 p.m. today.
The Red Devils are ready to go, coach Tony McCaulley said Thursday afternoon just a couple of hours before Neah Bay’s final practice of the year.
“We have had some really good practices this week,” he said. “The kids have been really focused this week.
“[Thursday night] we will be going over special-teams play.”
The Red Devils are just as focused as they were the week they practiced for the then-No. 1-ranked Lummi Blackhawks in the quarterfinals, McCaulley said.
In that game, Neah Bay rolled over powerhouse Lummi 58-40, and that was after the Blackhawks opened with a 20-0 lead and were within five yards of making it a four-touchdown advantage in the first quarter.
But a forced fumble, a Neah Bay recovery and a long touchdown run two plays later and the Red Devils were back in the game.
McCaulley doesn’t want to go through that again, though.
“We don’t want to do that again,” he said.
The coach said he isn’t afraid that the state championship atmosphere will give his mostly young team the jitters.
“We have played there [Tacoma Dome] twice in the past two years in the semifinals,” McCaulley said.
“The kids are used to playing there.”
The artificial turf shouldn’t give an advantage to either team, McCaulley added.
“The turf will be good for us and it will be good for [Almira]. I think we match them pretty good for team speed.
“They have one guy that might be a little faster than us.”
That’s standout senior quarterback Derek Isaak, who looks extremely quick on film, McCaulley said.
“I haven’t seen him in person, so I don’t know if he is as fast as he looks on film.”
On the other hand, Neah Bay’s top playmakers, Josiah Greene and Titus Pascua, aren’t slowpokes.
“They are pretty fast,” McCaulley said.
The game, though, won’t be decided on speed, according to the coach.
“It will come down to toughness,” he said.
“I think if we can go out there and have a physical game, we will be just fine.”
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