No matter the look Aberdeen gave its home fans on Friday night — a flowing offense in the first half and a bend-don’t-break defense in the second half — the best look was on the scoreboard at Stewart Field.
Powered by a solid offensive effort in the first half, the Bobcats got a defensive touchdown and didn’t allow Castle Rock to score quickly en route to a 28-14 non-league victory.
Junior running back Kylan Touch scored a football hat trick — a rushing, reception and a pick-six for a touchdown — for Aberdeen (2-2). Castle Rock won the second half with two tries, but were slowed down effectively by the Bobcats.
“The game plan coming in was to spread the wealth and we got a lot of guys involved,” Aberdeen head coach Kevin Ridout said. “Things were clicking before the wheels fell off at the end, but I felt the guys did some really good things in the second half. (Castle Rock) is a powerful team. They’re not pushover and will be a threat in the Trico League down there.”
It didn’t take long for Aberdeen to get the lead. On its first drive of the game, sophomore quarterback Ben Dublanko hit two pass plays — an 18-yard strike to Tate Heple and a 37-yard pass-and-run to Braden Castleberry-Taylor — to set up Touch’s 9-yard touchdown run with 7:10 left in the first quarter.
Aberdeen liked the first drive so much, it scored again on its second drive. This one was engineered by Castleberry-Taylor, starting with a fake punt conversions. On fourth-and-1 at the Castle Rock 45-yard line, Castleberry-Taylor threw a 4-yard pass to Heple for the first down.
After a penalty and an incomplete pass, Dublanko hit Castleberry-Taylor on a short pass. Here, the senior wide receiver broke two Castle Rock tackles, stiff-armed a third Castle Rock defender out of his way and executed a Euro drop-step move down the sideline to juke a fourth defender en route to a 46-yard touchdown play with 2:04 left in the first quarter.
“The offense was clicking on all cylinders tonight,” Castleberry-Taylor said. “It was a great team effort. We played with fire and it showed. We’re progressing as a team and we’re looking at getting better every week.”
Castle Rock’s power running offense never got moving in the first half. This allowed Aberdeen to dictate the pace and it paid off on Dublanko’s second touchdown throw of the contest.
On a 60-yard drive, Dublanko converted all four of his passes for 68 yards, including a 29-yard scoring pass play from Dublanko to Touch down the middle of the field for a 21-0 lead with 2:30 left in the first half. The sophomore signal caller was 10-for-12 for 188 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
Castle Rock nearly ended the first half with a score, but a last-second run by quarterback Seth Werly was gang-tackled down outside of the end zone as time expired. Aberdeen junior nose tackle/offensive guard Skyler Murray was ejected from the game just before the end of the first half for unsportsmanlike conduct. AHS coaches noted they immediately appealed the officials’ decision before halftime, Ridout said.
Touch gave Aberdeen a 28-0 lead on Castle Rock’s second play from scrimmage of the second half. Reading the quarterback’s eyes as the Rocket receivers sprinted away on slant routes, Touch stepped up and intercepted Werly for a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“Offense was good in the first half, which got the tempo going for us,” Touch said. “We didn’t take any plays off. We made them work for every year and kept pushing on them.”
Castle Rock broke the shutout on its next drive, capped by Werly’s 26-yard touchdown fade pass to Bryce Desermo on fourth down, at 28-7 with 6:53 left in the third. The Rockets got a timely interception of Dublanko on the Bobcats’ ensuing drive, but started the drive at their own 2-yard line.
Twenty two plays, 98 yards and 8:03 of game time later, Castle Rock’s Tanner Catlin ran in from 6 yards out for a touchdown at 28-14 with 6:59 remaining in the contest. Aberdeen forced the visitors into three fourth-down plays and the Rockets converted them.
Aberdeen recovered the ensuing onside kick, smothered by junior Sage Bridges at midfield, and drained the clock before punting with 4:18 left. The Bobcats’ secondary didn’t give the Rockets’ receivers room for catches as Castle Rock’s last drive stalled with 2:49 remaining at its own 16-yard line.
“We’re excited about this (two wins) and now we’ll begin work for next week against Chehalis,” Ridout said. “We got a lot of guys involved. We had guys make big plays, but we also had guys who did the little things for us. To me, that’s important. It was a big team win.”
On Friday, Aberdeen will return to the Evergreen 2A Conference on Homecoming night by hosting 10th-ranked Chehalis.
