High School Sports

Day After Report: Hudson’s Bay 51, Fort Vancouver 0

After eight weeks of high school football, only two things are clear for Vancouver teams in the 3A Greater St. Helens League:

  • Mountain View is the league’s No. 1 regional playoff seed
  • Hudson’s Bay can return to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years as the No. 2 seed with a Week 9 home win over Kelso

The Eagles put themselves in control of their postseason destiny with their convincing win over archrival Fort Vancouver at Kiggins Bowl in the annual Peace Pipe Game.

While the No. 2 seed doesn’t get a home playoff game in the regional round, it does get a much easier road trip, traveling north to play the Metro League’s No. 4 seed. The third seed heads east to play the Mid-Columbia Conference champion.

Even if Evergreen were to upset Mountain View in their Week 9 matchup, a Bay win gives the Eagles the No. 2 seed because they would own the head-to-head tiebreaker over both the Plainsmen and Highlanders.

In that scenario, Kelso gets the No. 3 seed because it beat Evergreen.

So what happens if Bay loses to Kelso? The Highlanders secure the No. 2 seed, and there are three potential outcomes for the No. 3 seed:

  • Evergreen beats Mountain View: Plainsmen get the No. 3 seed.
  • MV wins, and Prairie beats Fort: A three-way tie for third between the Eagles, Plainsmen, and Falcons that would necessitate a Kansas tiebreaker.
  • MV and Fort win: Bay gets the No. 3 seed because it beat Evergreen.

“We’re excited to have this opportunity,” Eagles coach Mark Oliverio said. “I think we’re ready to take that next big step.”

WHAT A WIN: Hudson’s Bay hadn’t had a win this big since Week 2 of the 1983 season, when it blanked Seattle Prep 60-0.

The 51-point margin of victory easily was the largest since the Peace Pipe Game started in 1956. Fort and Bay previously had 35-point wins in the series.

The victory also clinched Bay’s first winning season since 2002.

SHUTDOWN ‘D’: The Eagles pitched a shutout against Fort for the second straight year, and this time, the Trappers never threatened to light the scoreboard. They didn’t get a first down until 5 minutes remained in the second quarter and didn’t cross midfield until the final 30 seconds of the game, getting as far as the Bay 48.

Until that final drive, Fort was in negative figures for total yardage. The 25 yards the Trappers gained in the final two minutes pushed their final total to 16 yards of offense.

“Last year, we shut them out, so this year, we had to do it again, keep it going,” said Bay linebacker Toa Kamatule.

THIS AND THAT: Bay RB Marco Cadiz went over 100 yards for the fifth time this season, gaining 110 yards on 12 carries before sitting out the entire second half. … Fort ran only 31 offensive plays, and 12 of them went for negative yards. Its longest play from scrimmage went for 15 yards. … Fort still leads the all-time series 38-25-2. … The Trappers have now lost 10 straight games in league play.

Avatar
Scroll to top