Friday Harbor’s Tanner Buck had a hand in all four touchdowns as the Wolverines opened the season with a decisive 29-8 win Sept. 3 at La Conner.
Buck, a senior, tossed two touchdown passes and rushed for another two as Friday Harbor turned a 15-2 halftime lead into a runaway victory down the stretch against the Division 2B Braves.
La Conner, led this year by a new head coach, proved a worthy opponent in the trenches despite the lopsided score, Friday Harbor Head Coach Darrin Scheffer said.
“La Conner is vastly improved from year’s past,” Scheffer said. “They hit a lot harder and it’s always nice to have some good competition.”
Senior Tyler Pruitt hauled in a 40-yard touchdown pass to tally one of the Wolverines’ two TD strikes, and senior Roy Taylor turned his only reception of the game into six points on a 16-yard catch-and-run. Buck completed 6-of-11 pass attempts for 119 yards and threw two interceptions to go along with the pair of touchdowns passes.
Wide receiver Preston Ukra snagged a pair of passes for 26 yards.
Friday Harbor wasted little time in putting the Braves on their heels. Taylor gained 47 yards on a end-around sweep on the very first play from scrimmage. The Wolverines amassed 276 yards of total offense — 119 in the air and 157 on the ground — and held the Braves to just 142 total yards on their home field. Middle linebacker Cody West, a senior, led the team in tackles.
Friday Harbor’s defensive unit held the Braves scoreless in the opening half. La Conner tallied two points before the break, however, as an errant snap by the Wolverines deep in their own territory led to a safety on a failed punt attempt. The Braves, who tallied their only touchdown of the contest in the third quarter, fell further behind as Friday Harbor lit up the scoreboard with two more TDs in the second half.
“We had a great first quarter and a good end to the third quarter and a good end to the fourth,” Scheffer said. “There were a few rough spots in between, but overall, I’m very proud of the kids. We’ve got a brand new offensive line and those guys really stepped up.”
Next up for the Wolverines are the Vikings of Orcas as the annual meeting of interisland rivals, the Island Cup, returns to Friday Harbor on Friday. Kick-off is 6:45 p.m.
With a win, the Wolverines would claim their seventh consecutive Island Cup victory and 14th overall. Orcas can end six years of frustration and tally its eighth Island Cup victory overall by upsetting Friday Harbor on its own home field.
