Knightmare on Stampede Boulevard

It was a hellish night for the Olympic Trojans as their Halloween was anything but happy when the Bremerton Knights rang their bell.

Olympic responded with the biggest treat they could, allowing Aubrey Neal to run the quarterback option at will for three rushing touchdowns on 16 carries for a monstrous total of 149 yards, as the Blue and Gold scored a season-high 61 points in a 61-28 rout for their fourth consecutive win after an 0-4 start.

“There’s not a lot of teams that go 0-4 and then come back to win four games in a row,” Bremerton coach Shawn Perkins said. “Our kids missed the playoffs but they’re playing hard, believing in themselves, having fun and improving and that’s what it’s all about.”

The Knights pounded the worst defense in the Bridge Division with every trick they could think of, including 350-pound, 6-foot-4-inch Josh Schmidt who terrorized the Trojans for a 2-yard touchdown and a pair of two-point conversions. Bremerton also got touchdowns from Justin Robinett, backup QB Jeff Frankenberger and Sean Blevins who returned a kickoff 86 yards.

“It’s a big rivalry,” BHS tight end Noah Garguile who caught a 5-yarder from Neal for a TD. “It’s good to get a win because those are our friends over there and this means bragging rights for the rest of the year.”

“It seemed our guys were never comfortable playing,” Oly coach Carlton Cooper said. “Guys were in defensive position to make plays but we didn’t make them.

“Our confidence is down but it’s frustrating because we can play so much better than we have.”

And when the Trojans defense held the line, the normally error-free offense couldn’t capitalize.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a number of times early on,” Cooper said. “We’d look good for one series and then we’d jump offsides or drop balls.”

The only bright spot for the Blue and White was senior running back Jarrell Nelson who rushed 17 times for 195 yards and all four of the home team’s touchdowns. Saul Fale also had plenty of carries with eight for 75 yards.

Not to say that the Trojans didn’t have plenty of chances with a number of drives starting at midfield.

“We had so many plays that were wide open,” Oly quarterback Jeff Shaw lamented. “I just couldn’t throw them the ball.”

Shaw, a senior, made four completions on 15 attempts for 73 yards and was picked off twice on under-thrown balls.

“It was pitiful,” Shaw said. “We had guys that were wide open, we had false starts, all sorts of things went wrong. You can’t have a worse night and we scored 28 points.

“But we did have some guys who haven’t played much make some big plays. Brett Fuller made a nice grab across the middle (for 31 yards) and that was big. So was (tight end) Adam Winger’s making a nice grab coming off the middle (for 23 yards).”

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