Oly tastes first victory

"Traditional thinking would lead you to conclude that the best football games would features the undefeated teams. But a game between two struggling teams can be just as exciting.Such was the case when Olympic hosted Bremerton last Friday night at Silverdale Stadium for the Trojans' first home game of the season. Both teams had faced tough opponents the two previous weeks and had not yet tasted victory.Ultimately the home team got the first taste. The Trojans, breaking a fourth-quarter tie with a 62-yard scoring pass from Chris Ebert to Ariel Sanchez, gave Pete Weymiller his first win as coach with a 24-17 decision.Olympic's wing offense, which featured 12 different ballcarriers during the game, moved the ball down the field through the first quarter and was able to convert a field goal seconds into the second.After only three plays by Bremerton's offense, it looked like the Trojans would be back on the field to score some more points. But that was just deception. Standing on his own 30-yard line, Bremerton kicker Larry Kimmons called for the punt snap, appeared to have trouble catching the ball, recovered, and took off running down the right side of the field. Expecting a kick, the Olympic defense did not realize that Kimmons had a bee-line on the end zone and was able to put only one defensive player in the path of the streaking runner. After Kimmons broke through the lone tackle there was nobody to stop him and he waltzed into the end zone alone.But the score did not remain 7-3 for long.Seven plays later, in the trusty hands of Steve Dillon, Olympic put seven more points on the scoreboard and took the lead back. Troy extended that lead in the closing minutes of the first half, on a screen pass from their senior QB, Ebert, to sophomore running back Jarrel Nelson.Coming out of the halftime locker room, it looked as though Bremerton would quickly take back the lead. Under the guidance of sophomore quarterback Aubrey Neal, Bremerton's wishbone option offense was gobbling up yards. Disappointment struck, however, when Kimmons fumbled 1 yard from the end zone.But fortune was smiling still on the Knights. Unable to move the ball, Olympic was forced to punt after only three plays. When the punt snap sailed over the kicker's head and through the end zone for a safety, Bremerton was two points richer.Following the safety, Bremerton tied the game at 17-17, at the end of the third quarter, keyed by a 26-yard option play to the right that ended with Justin Robinette hitting the end zone. Since the play worked so well they ran it again, for a 2-point conversion. This time, Neal carried it over himself.The play that won the game came at the 4-minute, 50-second mark of the fourth quarter. Ebert dropped back for his fifth pass of the game and connected with Sanchez, who was running wide open down the middle of the field.Weymiller said that the play was an attempt to take advantage of a Bremerton defense that was concentrating on stopping the run after his team's early lack of success through the air.The key was that we did not get down and kept playing, said Weymiller, who took over the Trojans this fall, succeeding Dave Rastovski, who had a three-year tenure.In the remaining minutes, Bremerton was not able to get past midfield and had to get on the bus with their third loss of the season.The 381 yards of total offense achieved by Olympic proved to their fans that they will be able to put points on the scoreboard this season. Even better, though, the Trojans got through the game without committing a single turnover, while forcing the Knights into three giveaways.Enjoying his first win, Weymiller said, This is a very young team and we made a lot of rookie mistakes that we will work on this week in practice.Oly plays on the road Friday against a North Kitsap team reeling from two straight division losses. Bremerton must visit Bridge favorite South Kitsap, 2-0 in division play.Bremerton's wishbone option offense looked good for the most part, and was credited with 300 yards of offense.The difference in the game, as it turned out, was one 62-yard pass. "

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