Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s Max Smith insured the crowd that came to see the homecoming game went home happy.
Smith found the end zone five times as the Titans cruised past Raymond 49-0 on Friday night in Menlo.
The Titans (2-1, 1-0 Pacific 2B) cruised to their first league win of the season and didn’t waste anytime pulling ahead of their rivals.
Max Smith broke off a 30-yard run on the fourth play from scrimmage, slicing up the middle of the field on a touchdown run that gave PWV the 7-0 lead at 10:22 in the first quarter.
Smith found paydirt again, this time on defense, scooping up a fumble and sprinting 30 yards for a touchdown that put the Titans up 14-0 at 3:55 in the first quarter.
Smith said that the play of the linebackers and defensive line set the tone early on.
“We played lights out on defense, for the most part,” he said. “(Defensive end) Luke Gerow had an awesome game, so shout out to him. Everyone did their job tonight and it turned out good.”
In the face of an aggressive Titans defense, the Seagulls (0-3, 0-1) struggled to get anything going in the first half. Raymond didn’t pick up a first down until the third quarter and was limited to 47 yards of total offense.
One of Raymond’s leading rushers entering the game, senior running back McCartney Maden, couldn’t get anything going on the ground and ended the night with minus-2 rushing yards.
Joseph Villalpando had the most success on the ground for the Gulls with 30 yards on 13 carries.
Titans head coach Josh Fluke said slowing Maden down was at the center of the team’s defensive preparation the week leading up to the game.
“We wanted to stop (Maden). We wanted (Raymond) to put it in someone else’s hands. They kept going to him and we controlled him,” he said. “That was the whole scheme this week. Kaden Miller really shined tonight playing defensive tackle. He was playing like a man possessed.”
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley running back Bubba Isaken runs through a whole on the left side of the line in the second quarter of a game against Raymond on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
PWV held a 14-0 lead over Raymond after 12 minutes of play and the Titans would put the game out of reach in the second quarter. Smith’s impressive night continued as the senior running back had a 20-yard touchdown run with 9:58 left in the second frame.
After Pe Ell-Willapa Valley recovered a fumble, Smith found the end zone again a little over a minute later with a 19-yard run to bring the score to 27-0 with 8:49 left until halftime.
PWV’s Adam Smaciarz got the first Titans touchdown not scored by Smith, when he recovered a fumble and took it to the house to bring the score to 34-0 with 4:55 left the second quarter.
Smith got one last score before PWV pulled most of its starters, notching a 4-yard touchdown run to give the Titans a 40-0 lead with less than a minute left before halftime.
Fluke said the lopsided score is an indication of his players’ focus during a homecoming week that can provide a lot of distractions.
“A lot of stuff was going on at school. They had a fun week with homecoming, but when it came time to get down to business, they got it done,” he said. “They came out ready to play. We had to step out on that field and be ready to go full throttle and they were ready for the occasion.”
Raymond head coach Luke Abbott wasn’t too discouraged by the one-sided affair. He said his team has the resiliency to bounce back for next week’s game after losing to one of the best 2B teams.
“We just faced the best team in this league and there is nowhere to go but up from here,” he said. “Next week we have Chief Leschi. If we put in a good week of practice, I’m fairly confident we can be competitive in that game.”
Raymond running back Joseph Villalpando looks for daylight on a run play in the second quarter of a game against Pe Ell-Willapa Valley on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Raymond’s home game against Chief Leschi will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday while PWV will prepare for one of its toughest tests of the season with a game against Onalaska.
The Loggers are currently the 6th-ranked team in the state in 2B, according to maxpreps.com, but Smith said his team has what it takes to pull off the upset.
“I’m fully confident in our team,” he said. “We can definitely do it. It’s going to take a really hard week of practice because Onalaska is a very good team, so it’s going to take a lot of effort.”
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley 14 26 7 2 – 49
Raymond 0 0 0 0 – 0
Leading Passer: Raymond — Adrian Quintana (6-7,23)
Leading Rushers: PWV— Max Smith (11-154, 4 TD), Bubba Isaken (7-105)
