Knights fall to Seahawks

The Bremerton Knights never quit in their league opener against the Peninsula Seahawks last Friday night, but it wasn’t enough as the visitors from Purdy left with a 36-6 victory.

After keeping the Seahawks scoreless in the first quarter, the Knights appeared to gain momentum as they drove to the 50-yard line before quarterback Jacob Belden mishandled a snap from center, which the Seahawks recovered.

That turnover led to a 23-yard field goal as the Knights defense buckled down to keep the visitors out of the end zone.

After that, Peninsula’s J.D. Devaga took over as he sliced through the Knights defense before his backfield mate Brandon James knifed through the middle for a 7-yard touchdown run to put the Knights in a 9-0 hole.

Peninsula quarterback Kyle Knowles then added a 7-yard touchdown pass to put the Knights down 16-0 with time running out in the first half.

With its running game grounded, the Knights took to the air as Belden connected with Dimitri Alston for a 44-yard touchdown pass to bring Bremerton within 10 points with 15 seconds on the clock.

An unsportsmanlike penalty on the Knights cost them 15 yards on the ensuing two-point conversion as Bremerton failed to convert leaving the score 16-6 at the half.

In the second half, Bremerton’s ground game remained in neutral and its passing game proved inconsistent as Peninsula scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game out of reach at 30-6.

Devaga and the rest of the Seahawk backfield took advantage of Peninsula’s great field position as they accumulated more than 250 yards of rushing on the night.

In contract Bremerton’s leading rusher Jamiere Abney was limited to 47 yards on 10 carries and suffered a collar bone injury late in the third quarter.

Peninsula added to late field goals from Matthew Johnson to close out the scoring on the night.

With the loss Bremerton drops to 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in league, but coach Nate Gillam said his team had its chances to come away with a big win.

“Physically we can compete with them, but when we get in a position to win, we don’t know what to do,” Gillam said. “That’s the hard part about that.”

The team needs to do a better of job of responding in those situations in order to turn things around, he said.

“Our defense did pretty well, but they were on the field too long,” he said. “The kids played well, and they gave it all they’ve got.”

As far as the seriousness of his team’s leading rusher’s injury, Gillam said he knew it was a collarbone injury, but he wasn’t sure how serious it was after the game.

Next up for the Knights is a three-game road trip that began with league front-runner Olympic in Silverdale last Friday night and trips to Port Angeles and Purdy to face league foes on the road before returning to Memorial Stadium Oct. 26 for a homecoming rematch against Olympic.

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