River Ridge races past Ridgefield

Brad Wallace had been silent offensively – at least by his high standards – the first two weeks of the high school football season.

Consider it the calm. The storm finally arrived Saturday, thundering down on the Ridgefield Spudders.

Wallace carved up the Ridgefield defense, scoring five touchdowns, to power the Hawks to a 61-40 victory in a non-league matchup at South Sound Stadium.

Wallace wasn’t alone in dismantling the Ridgefield defense. Wesley Coats caught six passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns and quarterback Colby Schultz, who completed his first 11 passes, threw for 375 yards on 14-of-17 accuracy with six TDs.

River Ridge, which blanked Sequim, 34-0, last week, improved to 2-1 this season.

Wallace, who scored on runs of 3 and 10 yards, kicked off the scoring by hauling in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Schultz three minutes into the game. He snagged a 58-yard scoring strike midway through the third quarter, adjusting his route at the last moment and coming up with a gorgeous one-handed catch en route to the end zone.

In between his two TD passes to Wallace, the red-hot Schultz hit Coats on a trio of touchdown tosses, helping the Hawks to a commanding 40-8 halftime lead.

Coats simply used his superior speed to get behind the Ridgefield defense on three occasions, pulling down touchdown receptions of 32, 50 and 50 yards.

Wallace came up with another highlight reel-worthy play on his first touchdown run, bouncing a simple run outside to the far side of the field before reversing direction and finding the end zone.

The play went down as a 3-yard run, but Wallace easily covered 60 yards with all the misdirection involved.

Wallace’s second TD run, a 10-yard scamper early in the second quarter, may have lacked the excitement of his first, but it still pushed River Ridge’s lead to 28-0.

After the Spudders scored 32 points in the fourth quarter, Wallace capped the scoring with a 52-yard TD pass from Schultz.

Defensively, Mathew Tucker picked off two passes from his linebacker position for the Hawks, who built a 47-8 lead through three quarters.

River Ridge continues its non-league slate next week at Hockinson.