Like any season-opening game, Friday night wasn’t perfect for W.F. West.
The Bearcats turned the ball over three times, gave up a defensive touchdown, and struggled to move the ball at times in the second half.
W.F. West may not have been perfect, but it was more than good enough to double up Peninsula and come away with a 42-21 victory in its season opener.
“It was a great team win,” W.F. West coach Dan Hill said. “It’s everything you can expect in Week 1, but I thought the boys' effort was incredible.”
The Bearcats couldn’t have scripted a better opening, as they forced a Peninsula punt before Jay Bieker took a quick pass from Wyatt Hoffman 46 yards for a touchdown.
After another Peninsula punt, Constantine Robertson punched in a touchdown from three yards out to put W.F. West up 14.
Peninsula missed a short field goal on its next drive, and it looked like W.F. West was in line to run away with it.
The Seahawks got the break they needed, though, hitting Hoffman from behind to knock the ball loose and returning the fumble 20 yards to the house to get on the board.
On the sideline shortly after the play, Hoffman and the rest of the offense didn’t waver.
“I feel like the biggest thing about this year’s team is that we’ve created a nice brotherhood that everybody is there to pick each other up when somebody makes a mistake,” Hoffman said. “Everybody was picking me up on the sideline. They didn’t let me get down about it, and that’s really important for a good team.”
It took W.F. West just three plays to respond. Hoffman hit Brendan Stevens for a 1-yard gain on the drive’s opening play before finding Holden Kunz across the middle for a gain of 27. On the next play, Hoffman connected with Bieker again, this time for a 19-yard touchdown to re-extend the lead to two scores.
On the next offensive possession, the Bearcats executed a perfect two-minute drill, one that was capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass from Hoffman to Stevens with just seven seconds until the break.
By halftime, W.F. West had a 28-7 lead.
“All of fall camp, we put so much time and dedication into the offense and making sure it’s the best that we can do,” Bieker said. “When we got out and it was time for the game, we were ready. We’ve done everything we needed to do, so we were totally ready … We knew what worked well, and we just stuck to that.”
It wasn’t as smooth in the second half, as the Bearcats turned the ball over on the second play of the half and were set to punt it away on their next possession.
A roughing the punter penalty gave W.F. West a first down, though, and just one play later, Hoffman hit Kunz for a 61-yard touchdown.
“Anytime you get second chances, you need to take advantage of them,” Hill said. “We got a little lucky on that one. But we’ve got playmakers, and when we get more opportunities to make plays, they tend to find a way to do it.”
Hoffman threw his final touchdown of the night in the fourth quarter, rolling to his right on what looked like a QB sweep before firing it to Jalen Amoroso, who was in the back corner alone.
Hoffman finished with five touchdowns and 290 yards through the air, and he also ran for 78 yards on the ground.
As a unit, the Bearcats finished with 444 total yards of offense.
“We did a good job of knowing our responsibilities,” Hoffman said. “Our line was blocking great, our receivers were running the correct routes, it was nice and fundamental.”
Bieker finished with 115 total yards and two touchdowns, Kunz finished with 155 yards and his touchdown through the air on seven catches, and Stevens and Amoroso combined for six catches, 50 yards, and two scores.
“It’s awesome when everybody gets involved,” Hill said. “We got weapons everywhere. Getting all those guys touches is important. The more touches guys get, the more they can perform at a higher level later on.”
W.F. West (1-0) will now hit the road for the next three weeks, starting with a trip to Lakes next Friday. After that, they’ll head to Kelso, then they’ll wrap up the road trip at Columbia River.
Both Hoffman and Hill used the same phrase when talking about the team’s strength of schedule.
“We got playoff football the next four or five weeks coming up,” Hoffman said. “We just gotta get to work and get ready.”
