New roles don’t stop W.F. West from rallying by River Ridge in nailbiter
W.F. West High School juniors Josiah Johnson and LeAndre Gaines got a new football coach this season in Dan Hill. With a new system came new assignments for both.
Johnson hadn’t played much quarterback in the past, and Gaines would move from tight end to wide receiver despite his 6-foot-2, 250-pound frame.
Friday night in Chehalis, as the Bearcats stunned everyone from their own fans to visiting River Ridge with a 28-27 come-from-behind win, neither seemed like a guy on his first day on the job.
Johnson completed the first five passes he threw, then struggled for much of the second and third quarters before finishing with four touchdown passes, two to Gaines, two to Carver Brennan.
The second pass to Gaines was a lob over the middle that the big receiver grabbed before spinning away and outracing River Ridge defenders for a 69-yard touchdown that proved to be the game winner. Kicker Bryce Laudenberg, who had missed on his first PAT try, broke a 27-27 try with the extra point.
“We were just trying to get the first down, keep the chains moving,” said Gaines of the play that broke the game open with less than three minutes to play.
“I saw one guy there and I was hoping there was no one on the other side so I spun.”
Johnson finished with 211 yards passing but wasn’t the only quarterback to shine in the game. River Ridge sophomore Jevon Brown complete 10 of 19 passes without an interception for 166 yards. Fellow sophomore Dontae Owens had a game that should create headaches when opposing coaches scout the video.
Owens caught eight of Brown’s passes for 155 yards and a touchdown. On what appeared to be a game-winning drive for River Ridge, Brian Melloy carried the ball on the final three plays, putting the Hawks up 27-21 inside the four-minute mark with a 7-yard run up the middle.
But Owens, whose name was called time and again on defense as well, had two 20-yard receptions to energize the Hawks.
In the early going, Hill could have been forgiven if he thought his new job would be easy.
On W.F. West’s very first possession, another newcomer to his job, Johnson found Brennan as open as possible down the left sideline and hit him in stride for a 37-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
After the Bearcats defense forced the Hawks to punt, Jaiyden Camoza fielded the ball at his own 47 and ran it back 38 yards. W.F. West was in business at the River Ridge 15 and, surviving a couple of backward plays, scored to go up 13-0 when Johnson lofted a pass to Gaines, who out-leaped a pair of Hawks defenders for an 18-yard touchdown.
Meanwhile, the Hawks were showing all the signs of a team playing its first game of the season — needless penalties, passes thrown to phantom receivers, players racing onto the field at the last second on punting downs.
That all changed on a huge defensive play by workhorse back Kieran Hunkin.
On first-and-10 from his own 26, Johnson threw over the middle and Hunkin picked it off, racing 27 yards on the return to the Bearcats’ 17. After three carries by Melloy took the Hawks to the 9 on fourth down, Brown rolled right and hit Max Eder for the touchdown.
Forcing a three-and-out on W.F. West’s next possession, River Ridge marched 72 yards on just six plays to score on a 4-yard run by Hunkin. The key play on the drive was a 41-yard pass from Brown to Owens.
Jacob Miller made his second PAT, while the Bearcats had missed one, to give River Ridge a 14-13 lead at the half.
“We had a good game plan to start with, but our coaches did a good of adjusting so we could come back,” Johnson said of the Bearcats’ rally.
This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 12:15 AM.