The Pe Ell/Willapa Valley football team snapped a five-game losing streak on Friday night, beating Ilwaco 44-29 at home to get its first win since Sept. 4.
“I’m really really proud of our kids,” PWV coach John Peterson said. “They showed a lot of stuff today.”
The Titans took control early, scoring 30 unanswered points after Ilwaco opened the scoring to take a 30-7 lead into the half.
They stalled in the third quarter and early in the fourth, allowing Ilwaco to get within seven at 30-23, but PWV iced the game with two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to re-extend the lead.
“We gathered ourselves,” Peterson said. “The kids did a good job of coming back.”
Lucas Lusk was all over the field, as he ran for 293 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries. In the first half alone, he had rushes of 69 and 44 yards, and he went into the locker room at the break with 210.
“Lucas was absolutely wonderful,” Peterson said.
Eddie Clements added 52 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and as a team, the Titans finished with 378 rushing yards.
Peterson credited both of his backs but also made sure to commend everyone on his offensive line and his tight ends: Roman Dominguez, Cody Dawson, Braxton Corder, Odin Seely, Isaiah Lynch, Kaeden Blaine and Ty Jerles, and Grady Ruddell.
“We really ran the football, which is how I wanna play,” Peterson said, noting that the Titans ran the Power-I, which they ran back in the 80s.
Defensively, John Hamilton finished with nine tackles (five solo), Lusk had eight (four solo), and Eddie Clements had nine tackles (eight solo) and three sacks.
Ilwaco was able to throw the ball around, connecting on 28 of its 49 passing attempts, but the Titans limited them to negative-15 rushing yards.
PWV (2-5, 1-2 C2BL West) will hit the road next Friday, Oct. 23, to face Raymond/South Bend.
