Grizzlies too much for Reardan

Finish regular season undefeated with 43-0 win

REARDAN – Jacob Reimers only touched the ball 10 times Friday night, nine of them runs and one a pass reception. He used them to score three rushing touchdowns and gain 235 yards on the ground and another 35 yards receiving in a 42-0 shutout at Reardan Friday night, Oct. 24.

“Reardan was keying heavily on Kutter Driver and Jacob took full advantage while running our counters,” Newport coach Mark Duxbury says. “When I told him his rushing yardage, he immediately said the offensive line made it easy for him.”

Reimers scored three touchdowns on double handoff runs of 39, 90 and 47 yards. In the double handoffs, quarterback Brad Martin hands off to Driver who quickly hands to Reimers.

Preston Wacenske also scored on a huge run when he took the opening kickoff back for an 85-yard touchdown.

Wacenske also scored the final Grizzly touchdown on a 15-yard run in the fourth quarter. He had 37 yards from scrimmage on seven carries.

Driver had the most carries for Newport.

“Kutter still was our work horse,” Duxbury says. “He had 18 carries for 90 hard earned rushing yards.”

Driver scored in the second quarter on a 1-yard touchdown.

Newport rolled up more than 400 yards of offense while holding Reardan to less than 100 yards in the Grizzlies’ fourth shutout of the year. It was the second consecutive game in which the relentless defense wouldn’t allow the opposition to gain 100 yards. Reardan was only able to get five first downs.

“Our defense played well,” Duxbury says. “We held Reardan to -1-yard rushing on 19 attempts.”

Newport had eight tackles for a loss.

“The defensive front didn’t allow Reardan’s QB to have a clean pocket,” Duxbury says. “They got after him and applied constant pressure.”

Newport held Reardan 10 of 23 and for 57 yards passing.

Newport’s only flaw came in the fourth quarter when kicker Damien Hamburg’s extra point kick was blocked. He had to kick twice after a Newport penalty negated his first kick.

Hamburg had a pair of sacks on defense and kicked five extra points.

Martin only threw two passes, completing both,

a 35-yarder to Reimers and a 2-yard pass to Dylan Aubrey.

Sophomore runner Erik Estrada carried twice for 13 yards and Jared Nunley, another sophomore, also carried twice for 11 yards.

Duxbury is proud of Newport’s Northeast 2B League championship.

“This is a huge accomplishment, especially with only four seniors,” he says. It is Newport’s first league championship in 33 years, with the last one coming in 1992. “That team went 9-2, as did the 1991 team that was co-champs. We haven’t been able to determine the last regular season undefeated team at NHS yet.”

Newport ended the regular season with a 9-0 record, counting a forfeit from Chewelah, who didn’t have enough players.

That means Newport will be off two weeks before first round of playoffs on Nov.14.

“This will be another challenge our guys are going to have to overcome,” Duxbury says. “The team needs to stay motivated, focused and continued to improve at practice.”

Duxbury says he won’t know who Newport plays in the first round until Nov. 8. He predicts Newport will be ranked in the top four.