Olympic League standings

Team Lg. Over.

North Kitsap 2-0 4-0

Kingston 1-0 1-3

Sequim 1-0 3-1

North Mason 1-1 1-3

Olympic 1-1 2-2

Bremerton 0-2 1-3

Port Angeles 0-2 0-4

In the waning seconds of their Olympic League-opener against Bremerton last week Sequim finally caught a break, recovering their own fumble near the Knights’ goal line.

“Everything close (had) gone their way,” Sequim head coach Erik Wiker said. Everything, except the score.

Sequim junior Gavin Velarde returned the game’s opening kickoff 95 yards for the only score and the Wolves’ stout defense dominated Bremerton in a 7-0 SHS victory on Sept. 23.

“I told the kids, it’s a little like a playoff game,” Wiker said, reminding the players that Bremerton was the team that’s knocked Sequim out of the postseason two seasons in a row. “In the end, it might why we get into the playoffs.”

“Bremerton’s been my bugaboo,” Wiker said.

Not on this night. Despite a slew of penalties — 11 for 108 yards — and an offense that sputtered at times, Sequim won this key road victory on the same field they saw postseason hopes dashed 11 months earlier.

In that 2015 matchup, Velarde had a monster game (10 receptions, 162 yards and a TD) but fumbled late in the fourth quarter, setting up the Knights’ game-winning score.

This time it was Velarde making the difference, scoring the lone points after going nearly untouched on the opening play.

“I wanted redemption after my fumble,” said Velarde, an all-Olympic League special-teamer and receiver in 2015.

“I thought we’d put more on there (on the scoreboard),” Velarde said. “We had a little bit of miscommunication and penalties. It hurts, but we were fighting through adversity.”

The Wolves, led sophomore quarterback Riley Cowan (18-for-43 for 169 yards), struggled to finish, seeing three drives end inside Bremerton’s 30-yard-line in the first half alone.

A number of penalties, four turnovers and a running game that never got going (67 yards on 25 attempts) didn’t help either, Wiker said.

Part of that was the Knights’ physicality.

“They play tough and (have) great athletes,” the Sequim coach said, (but our) defense did an excellent job.”

While Sequim amassed 83 yards in first-half penalties, the Wolves kept Bremerton quarterback Mikhail Papillon and the Knights to just 50 yards of offense.

It didn’t get much better for the Knights in the second half, as Sequim repeatedly forced long third- and fourth-down situations.

Bremerton finished with just nine first downs and 128 yards of total offense.

Bremerton looked to catch a huge break when Velarde fumbled a punt return at the end of the third quarter, but the Wolves’ defense forced a turnover on downs. Sequim went on to force two more turnovers-on-downs to close out the game.

Velarde said Sequim will need to do a better job of completing drives if they want to continue to post-league wins.

“Scoring in the red zone for sure (is the key),” he said. “We need to finish. We were getting there, but we need to finish.”

The Wolves haven’t given up a point in the last six quarters.

See more photos from the game at www.sequim gazette.com.

Looking ahead

Sequim gets its biggest challenge of the season when they host defending Olympic League runner-up North Kitsap on Sept. 30; game time is 7 p.m.

The Vikings (2-0 in league, 4-0 overall) beat Olympic 38-14 last week and have outscored opponents 179-34.

Last season, NK beat Sequim 27-10 on the way to a 5-1 record, second to Olympic.

The Wolves host North Mason (1-1, 1-3) on Oct. 7.