Saturday’s football game against Whitworth ended in a 63 – 35 loss for the Loggers despite another display of offensive splendor with a total of 470 yards (421 of them being passing yards).
Junior wide receiver Adam Kiffin (Salem, Ore.) broke the school record for single game receptions for the second time this season; he snared 22 balls from senior quarterback Duncun White (Lake Oswego, Ore.) resulting in 203 yards and four touchdowns. Kniffin finished the season with school records of 92 receptions and 17 receiving touchdowns this year.
The game started off well for Logger defense as they forced the Pirates into a turnover on downs at the four-yard line. The Logger offense took over but couldn’t capitalize on the defensive stand and were forced to punt. Whitworth scored on the next play with an 81-yard touchdown run, the first of six by running back Adam Anderson, making the score 7 – 0. The Loggers fought back on the next drive when White threw a one-yard pass to Kniffin, tying up the score at 7-7. Whitworth responded with three unanswered touchdowns pulling ahead 28 – 7. Near the end of the half White threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Thiesen Chang (Vancouver, Wash.) to momentarily close the gap, but with 23 seconds in the half Whitworth scored their fifth touchdown of the half to head to the locker rooms up 35 – 14.
The third quarter consisted of an explosion of offensive action with six touchdowns, three from each team. Whitworth started this tradeoff with a 1 yard touchdown making the score 42 – 14. The Loggers followed with a 6-yard touchdown pass from White to Kniffin. Again, Whitworth scored on a 74-yard touchdown pass, from their running back no less, before the Loggers scored on a 5-yard pass from White to Kniffin, making the score 49 – 28.
Just three minutes later White connected with Kniffin yet again in one of the most exciting plays of the game. Whitman defense closed around White but he sidestepped them and launched the ball toward the end zone where Kniffin jumped above a defender and landed just inside the sideline for a 30-yard touchdown, closing the gap to 49 – 35.
Whitworth scored the last touchdown of the third quarter and added one more for padding in the fourth. This touchdown finished off the game with a final score of 63 – 35.
Even though in the game ended in a loss for the Loggers, they played a good game. Alongside Kniffin’s outstanding game, senior running back Casey Larson (Coupeville, Wash.) had 68 yards on 15 carries. Junior defensive back Demarkus Milner (Tacoma, Wash.) led the team in defense with 12 tackles, and senior defensive lineman Chris Subia (Renton, Wash.) made four tackles with 1.5 sacks in his final game in a Logger uniform.
“Logger football was family in the truest sense. I knew that no matter what happened they had my back and I had theirs. By trying to help the team grow, I myself grew more than I could have ever expected. While it was about the X’s and O’s when we were playing the game, it was about having each others’ back and expecting the guy next to you to be better than he was the day before above anything else,” Subia said.
The Loggers finished with a final record of 2 – 7, but that doesn’t tell everything. They suffered three crushing last-second defeats, including one after playing six overtimes. They were three plays away from finishing 5 – 4 and being in the hunt for the conference championship all season.
In just the first year under head coach Jeff Thomas the Loggers set numerous offensive records and had one of the best passing attacks in the nation. There is no doubt that this team can look forward to continued improvement next year with 14 starters returning to the team.
“Next year, we’re looking to improve on what we’ve already done. We had some disappointing losses to some solid teams, but we have grown from that and will use those to inspire us during the offseason,” senior Tyler Vlasak (Sumner, Wash.) said.
Hope abounds throughout the team as they will look to continue moving in the right direction in 2011.
“Next year we are going to do great things and surprise a lot of people. Our goal is to be champions, so Logger football 2011 will unveil the championship type of football that we as a team are capable of playing,” sophomore Rick Day (Puyallup, Wash.) said.
[PHOTO COURTESY / CHRIS PUTNAM]