Nine seconds.

That’s how long it took the Rangers to get the undivided attention of the Crescent Loggers during their 1B varsity football matchup Saturday in Quilcene.

Jayden Love ran back the opening kickoff for an 80-yard touchdown as the Rangers routed the Crescent Loggers 36-8.

With the two-point conversion good, Quilcene led Crescent 8-0 with 9 seconds off the clock in the non-conference matchup.

It was the stifling start to a long afternoon for the Loggers.

The Rangers ran to a 30-0 advantage by the end of the first quarter, and tacked on another touchdown before halftime, while Quilcene’s stingy defense gave up few first downs or nearly nothing else to visiting Crescent.

The speedy first touchdown had Quilcene Coach Trey Beathard wondering aloud if that had ever happened before during his nine years at the helm of the Ranger squad.

“Maybe we did, but I sure don’t remember it,” Beathard said.

“That was good,” he added. “And we did kind of keep going.”

Did they ever.

Ranger senior James Miller rushed for the Rangers’ second touchdown with 9:20 left in the first quarter to put Quilcene ahead, 12-0.

Quilcene would lead 24-0 after another touchdown less than five minutes later.

The early offense was a fantastic flip of the script from the Rangers’ first two non-conference games, where the team struggled to score against their high-powered opponents, Naselle and Mossyrock.

The first touchdown sparked the Ranger sideline and coaxed an early quip from Beathard.

“I’m coaching a lot better than last week so far,” he said.

Quilcene led 30-0 after the first quarter and added its final touchdown in the second quarter.

The Loggers notched their only touchdown of the contest on their last possession of the game, with less than a minute left to play, after junior running back Conner Bavers pulled in a short pass for the score.

The win improved Quilcene’s record to 1-2, while Crescent fell to 1-2.

The Rangers’ first win of the season followed their opening game 38-8 loss to Naselle and a home-opener defeat, 54-16, against Mossyrock.

Beathard noted the early schedule was daunting. Naselle was ranked No. 4 in the preseason Top 10 rankings,

“I felt last year when they were working on the schedule that we were playing two really good teams. And I thought both of those games were going to be a challenge,” the coach said.

“That’s part of it, football, but just we’ve been a little bit unlucky with the COVID and some key injuries, to be honest with you,” he added.

“Mossyrock — they had 12 juniors and seniors last week, and we had one junior and senior. And they’re good.”

Quilcene entered Saturday’s showdown with its roster still less than full strength.

“That makes it a little bit tougher,” the coach said.

“I feel like we had a good week of practice.” Beathard added. “We still have three kids who aren’t able to play yet.”

Things will look more positive when they return, he said, both on Game Day and before.

“I think that all three of them are going to help contribute. And so, they’ll help contribute in the games, but also even in practice.

“I’m having a harder time organizing practice with lower numbers, and I’ve changed a little bit of stuff,” Beathard explained. “I haven’t run practices as well as I want to, because I show up, and all of a sudden, there’s like four or five kids missing because of sickness, injury, whatever.

“We’re working on that,” he added.

Love started as quarterback and went 3-for-4 passing with 59 yards in his short time under center.

Junior Dominic Smith also played quarterback (1-for-3, 13 yards), as did freshman Oliver Hopkins (0-for-3).

Miller paced the Quilcene offense, scoring three touchdowns (two rushing, one reception) and adding one 2-point conversion.

Smith also scored a touchdown and had a 2-point conversion.

Deakon Budnek had the remaining 2-point conversion for the Rangers.

The Rangers amassed 353 rushing yards, led by Miller with seven carries for 171 yards.

Ranger running back Andrew Perez-Lopez had eight carries for 49 yards, while fellow sophomore Mason Iverson had eight carries for 46 yards.

Smith also led on the receiving end, with two receptions for 52 yards.

Miller pulled in two tosses for 20 yards.

On defense, Maxx Budnek led Quilcene in tackles, with 13 (eight solo, five assisted).

Also coming up big was sophomore Taylor Boling, who had 12 tackles (seven solo, five assisted).

Deakon Budnek also had an interception against the Loggers, while freshman Hunter Simmons was credited with one caused fumble.

Crescent came into the game following a quality 46-8 win over Taholah.

“I think we played some good teams and I think we’re getting a little bit better. And we just got to keep getting better,” Beathard said.

The lopsided start, however, gave the Rangers the chance to put everyone available into the game.

“I wanted to work on some other stuff. And I wanted to get every single person in,” Beathard said. “And I wanted to rest some kids who are still not 100 percent, and play our younger kids. They may not get to play a lot next week. I like to get them in whenever I can.”

Next up are the Entiat Tigers (0-3), which challenged Almira-Coulee-Hartline two weeks ago but fell 36-32.

Almira-Coulee-Hartline won the state title last year and went undefeated at 12-0.

The Tigers are a familiar cat for Quilcene.

“We play another team that is somewhat similar to us in Entiat,” Beathard said.

“We go to their camp in the summer. One of the reasons we go is because that guy’s a good coach,” Beathard said of the Tigers’ Brian Bailey. “And I kind of pick his brain and see what drills they’re doing. And then also, we just like that competition.”

“Our kids have become kind of like friends with their kids,” Beathard added. “They talk on social media and all that kind of stuff.”

The two teams haven’t played during the season before, however.

“This will be our first time to play them in a real game. And they’re a really good passing team. And one of the things that we need to do better at is our pass defense,” Beathard said.

“That’s going to be a good practice for us to play there. Plus, driving over there, it’s like we’re in the playoffs or something. It’s like practice for that,” he said.

No doubt. The road trip has a travel time of nearly
4½ hours.

The long drive may take some of the novelty off such a journey, which may be important come the postseason.

“The first time or so we went real far on a trip in the playoffs, it was sort of like the game was secondary to a lot of our kids. I think now they’re a little bit more like, it’s business,” Beathard said.

Though the road is long, scheduling the trip was better than taking time off, the coach said.

“We like to play. We had an opening,” Beathard said.

“I don’t want to take the week off, I want to have a game.”