The Onalaska football team jumped out to a lead early and never looked back Thursday in Pe Ell, as the Loggers topped the Pe Ell-Willapa Valley Titans 58-15 to finish the regular season.
The Loggers got on the board immediately, as Cooper Lawrence took the opening kickoff back to the house, and they doubled the advantage just as quickly, as Lawrence snagged a pick-six just a few plays later.
“We really came out lights-out,” Onalaska coach Mazen Saade said.
The Loggers continued to pile it on early, as Rodrigo Rodriguez broke free for two long touchdown runs to make it 30-0.
The Titans were able to get on the board with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Nate Fluke to Blaine King near the end of the quarter.
Fluke and King were able to connect throughout, as King caught seven passes for 114 yards, and Blake Howard added over 100 yards on the ground. But the early hole was too big for the Titans to climb out of.
“Onalaska is a big, strong, physical team,” PWV coach Nate Smith said. “They’re gonna be a load to deal with in the playoffs, I’m sure.”
Kayden Mozingo responded with three touchdown runs of his own, two coming from 60 and 70 yards out, and Eli Srnka got loose for a 40-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
PWV’s only other touchdown also came in the fourth quarter, when Conner Reyes picked up a dropped snap and took it 80 yards back to the house for a scoop-and-score.
Onalaska was already locked into the No. 2 seed in the C2B South division regardless of the outcome, but the loss combined with a Forks loss and a Raymond-South Bend win left the Titans a part of a three-way tie for second in the North.
PWV came out on the bottom end of the three-team tie-breaking coin flips, meaning that the Titans will have to host a crossover play-in against Rainier, the No. 2 seed from the West, with the winner playing at Kalama in the crossover next Saturday.
“It’s gonna be a new season starting Tuesday,” Smith said. “We’ll see if we can rebound a little bit and see where we can take ourselves.”
Onalaska will host Forks in the crossover next Saturday. Saade shared a similar sentiment to Smith, noting how important the upcoming week of preparation will be.
“We’ll take this weekend to reflect and recover and get our bodies ready to go, and Monday we’ll go to work,” Saade said. “We’ve got to come prepared physically to play Forks … Our goal every year is to get into the crossover and see where we shake.”
