History, along with a lot of offense, was made Friday night at Stewart Field.
Hoquiam established itself early and often as a balanced offensive juggernaut behind the rushing of senior running back Artimus Johnson and senior quarterback Gregory Dick. The Grizzlies amassed 429 yards of offense, led by Johnson’s 234 yards rushing and three total touchdowns, in a 35-7 win over Aberdeen in the 111th edition of the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Rivalry Game.
Dick threw for 169 yards and three touchdowns — one each to Johnson, Jack Adams and Anthony Nash — on a spotless Chamber of Commerce night at Stewart Field.
“Our kids believe in what we do; we talked to them about this game being a special moment and snapshot in time and people will remember this,” HHS head coach Rick Moore said. “We did a good job of containing their big players. Kylan Touch and Braden Castleberry-Taylor played well for Aberdeen. They’re great kids. Aberdeen played hard. We had enough in the tank to press them the entire time.”
“They controlled the line of scrimmage,” AHS head coach Kevin Ridout said. “They gouged us with Artimus left and right. They had the ball control. We seemed to battle really well in there. For two weeks, we’re competing and playing better and I was happy with the way the guys played. Any time you can control the line of scrimmage, you can load the box and you need guys to make some plays. We just need to be more consistent in that.”
Aberdeen’s game plan coming into this contest was to slow down Hoquiam and contain the Grizzlies’ offensive weapons on defense. However, Hoquiam’s offense established itself as the dominant force from the first drive on.
After the Bobcats’ first drive, highlighted by a Kylan Touch 32-yard option pass to Braden Castleberry-Taylor, ended with a punt, the Grizzlies took over and gave the ball to Johnson. On his first carry of the game, Johnson broke inside and cut to the sideline for a 32-yard sprint. This set the tone, with the HHS offensive linemen opening holes for Johnson and his rushing teammates throughout the game.
“The game plan was to shove the ball down their throats and keep on going,” Johnson said. “They just kept giving me the ball and I kept on going. That was the plan. Every time we threw the ball, it opened up the rushing holes just that much more. I have to thank my offensive line. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have had such a great night.”
Johnson notched the first touchdown on the same drive, a 6-yard run when he simply ran behind his linemen and cut left untouched in the end zone for a 7-0 lead. Aberdeen couldn’t respond, getting some momentum on offense before punting the ball back to Hoquiam in the first half.
The Grizzlies keyed on Touch, Castleberry-Taylor and quarterback Ben Dublanko to stymie the Bobcats’ offense. The hosts had drives in motion, but a mistake with a penalty or a missed assignment put the brakes on whatever momentum they’d establish.
“We’d get some momentum on offense and then we would get a penalty that would take us back and we never really got into our flow of the game,” Castleberry-Taylor said. “We would get some drives and a big penalty would set us back. We made some plays, just got set back.”
Dick found his throwing rhythm early in the second quarter. After hitting several short screen passes, the senior fired a 47-yard touchdown bomb to Adams for a 13-0 margin with 10 minutes left in the first half. Dick hit his second touchdown on the next drive, which had a deep interception by Joey Shumate erased by a defensive pass interference call. Johnson took a simple swing pass and ran 18 yards for the touchdown.
Dick finished the first-half scoring when he ran in the 2-point conversion at 21-0.
The entire third quarter went quickly, even though Aberdeen ran just six offensive plays. Hoquiam had two extended drives end near midfield, including a snap that went over punter Payton Quintanilla and was thrown incomplete on the ensuing scramble.
Aberdeen took over early in the fourth quarter at its own 42-yard line after Quintanilla’s throw. The Bobcats would come away with its first touchdown drive against Hoquiam since 2013. A 30-yard Dublanko to Benton Butcher pass play started the drive to the Hoquiam 28-yard line. Runs by Touch and Dublanko, with a Dublanko pass to Castleberry-Taylor scattered in there, got the Bobcats to the 6-yard line.
On the Bobcats’ third fourth-down conversion play of the drive, Dublanko rolled away from pressure to his right and found Castleberry-Taylor in the back of the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown.
“When I was rolling out, I saw the linebacker was setting and they had covered our initial reads,” Dublanko noted. “I was trying to bait the backer so I could hit a receiver right behind him and then, luckily, Braden broke his route off and went to the back of the end zone. I was able to find him for an easy touchdown.”
Hoquiam responded with a six-play, 66-yard drive that featured all Johnson runs, including a 4-yard plunge for a 28-7 lead with 6:13 remaining. The Grizzlies finished the game when Dick hit Nash for a 40-yard touchdown pass play with 1:21 left to play.
“We made history tonight; it is such a special thing to be a part of, having the community out here supporting us,” Dick said. “Our (offensive) chemistry is getting better and better. We only have to keep going. This is special.”
On Friday, Aberdeen will hit the road to take on Elma at Davis Field. Hoquiam will also be on the road with a trip to Stevenson.
