Peninsula High School wasn’t about to let Gig Harbor get any real streak rolling in their football rivalry.
Playing as the visitors at Roy Anderson Field in Purdy, the Seahawks halted the Tides’ two-year Fish Bowl winning streak with a decisive 38-7 victory Friday night.
“We’ve been on the other end of this one,” said Peninsula coach Russ Filkins, whose team lost this game 33-0 a year ago. “We told the team we were committed to playing four hard quarters – period. We were committed to playing Seahawks football, whether we were winning or losing.”
The Seahawks (4-1 overall, 3-1 SPSL 3A) certainly played until the end. Though they held a 17-point lead with 3 minutes, 5 seconds to play and were at the Gig Harbor 21-yard line, Peninsula didn’t quit.
The Seahawks scored on a J.R. Grosshans 20-yard pass to Geoff Grant with 2:07 left.
Peninsula 31, Gig Harbor 7.
The Seahawks then forced a quick punt. With the ball back, they went in again with 24 seconds to go.
Peninsula 38, Gig Harbor 7.
“Gig Harbor is a very physical team,” Filkins said. “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.”
The Tides (2-3, 2-2 Narrows League) showed they could move the ball late in the first half, getting within 10-7 midway through the second quarter.
But by the late fourth, starting quarterback Barrett Schmidtke was on the sidelines with an apparent ankle injury, resting on a crutch.
The Tides weren’t using their timeouts. But they also couldn’t seem to stop the onslaught.
“I just told him (Filkins), we won’t forget,” Gig Harbor coach Darren McKay said. “It’s our job to stop them.”
That, Gig Harbor couldn’t do all night.
Peninsula delivered the final blow of the first half to get its advantage back to 10 points.
Answering Gig Harbor’s lone sustained drive of the half, the Seahawks quickly drove 77 yards on eight plays.
Grosshans connected with Grant for a 10-yard touchdown strike to culminate the 90-yard drive, which featured first downs on the drive’s final six plays.
The touchdown staked the Seahawks to a 17-7 lead.
“This is a huge win for us,” Grosshans said. “It’s been very exciting around school all week. In the town. It just feels really good to walk away with this win.”
Peninsula took the lead when Grosshans swung a pass out of the backfield to running back Darrian Creamer, who then rumbled 13 yards for a 7-0 lead with two minutes to go in the first quarter.
Two plays later, Peninsula intercepted a Schmidtke pass at the Gig Harbor 40.
The Seahawks culminated an 11-play drive with Cole Madden’s 25-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead.
Schmidtke finally moved the Tides on the ensuing drive. Gig Harbor went 56 yards, with Austin Seferian-Jenkins gathering in a jump-ball throw from Schmidtke for a 14-yard touchdown with 3:13 to play in the first half.
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