Sequim coach Erik Wiker saw plenty of positives — both in defeat and the season — despite a loss to visiting Fife Friday night.
Trojan running back Gavin Schneider ran for 167 yards and a touchdown and fellow Fife senior Anthony Duran rushed for 116 yards and two scores as Fife topped Sequim 19-0 on Nov. 3, in a game featuring two teams who were eliminated from postseason play.
Sequim finishes the campaign 2-7 overall, 2-4 in Olympic League play.
“They’re a solid team,” Wiker said following the loss.
“It was a close game,” he said, noting the non-league contest was much closer than the score implied: Sequim was one foot from being shut out after a second quarter drive ended on downs inside the 1-yard-line, and a fumble deep in Trojan territory was negated with what seemed like an early whistle.
“It’s a great marker [of where we’re at].”
Sequim’s Brayden White chases Fife quarterback Mattson Ducharme in the first half of a 19-0 Trojan win in Sequim. White and the Wolves held the Trojans to zero yards passing.
The game was a tale of two vastly different offenses. The Wolves, led by senior signal-caller Lars Wiker playing his final prep contest, racked all but 37 of their 190 yards through the air. Patrick Elias had four catches for 42 yards and Lars’ younger brother Liam added three catches for 53 yards.
Meanwhile, Schneider and Duran spearheaded a Trojan attack that racked up 347 yards, all on the ground. Sequim held Fife quarterback Mattson Ducharme to 0-for-6.
Fife’s defense held tough in the shutout, holding SHS to 1-for-11 on third downs and just eight first downs overall.
Duran opened the scoring with a two-yard plunge with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter, capping an 80-yard drive highlighted by Schneider’s 51-yard scamper.
Sequim looked to have the response in a nine-play, 51-yard drive, but it stalled at the 1-yard-line and Fife (5-5) came up with a big sack.
With 3:23 left in the first half, Fife had another 80-yard drive that Duran finished, this time from a yard out.
Sequim looked to get a score just before the first half whistle but the Trojans picked off a Lars Wiker pass, and the Trojans held a 13-0 lead at halftime.
Fife effectively took control of the game with the opening drive of the second half, a 10-play, 90-yard campaign that Schneider ended with a two-yard score.
The Wolves, who wound up with nine games played on their schedule after an unexpected bye in week two, sees just three starters graduate: Lark Wiker, linebacker Ayden Holland and kicker Jack Henninger.
Holland earned all-Olympic League first team honors at linebacker as a junior in 2022. He said the future is bright for these Wolves in the coming years.
“We have a lot of guys who work hard and show up; they have a lot of potential,” he said.
Holland, a four-year starter, said he’ll miss many things about playing football at Sequim High, particularly getting his first start against North Kitsap as a freshman and beating Port Angeles in come-from-behind fashion last year.
Most of all, Holland said, he’ll miss being around his teammates.
“It’s the bus rides, the Saturday morning practices,” Holland said. “Being with the team, the’re’s nothing like it.”
