Hoquiam too much for King’s Way, 62-29

Down by a significant margin at halftime, King’s Way Christian players gathered themselves in the endzone for one last huddle before retaking the field to collectively shout, “Everybody eats!”

Little did they know, Hoquiam senior running back Artimus Johnson was already thinking about his own personal ground buffet.

The Grizzlies running back gained 341 yards rushing — including 210 and three long scores in the second half alone — as Hoquiam spoiled King’s Way Christian’s first home playoff game 62-29 on Friday.

“We felt we made the adjustments,” King’s Way head coach Colby Davies said of the second half. “But they were still able to get the edge. Credit to them. They had answers for everything we threw at them.

“The running back, quarterback are great players, tough players. We haven’t seen anyone like that all year long.”

King’s Way (7-3) had little difficulty moving the ball throughout much of the game, even gaining more total first downs than Hoquiam (7-3). But whether it was missed field goals or turnovers, the Knights had trouble finishing drives in the first half and the Grizzlies made the host team pay for it by scoring touchdowns.

Two of the scores came when Hoquiam defensive backs jumped routes and intercepted King’s Way senior quarterback Liam Nabors.

“They gave us looks we didn’t try in practice or see on film,” Nabors said of the costly first half interceptions. “They went two high (safeties). I was expecting one high.”

When the second half started, Davies said he and his staff remained confident that they could get back in the game. But Johnson slipped past would-be tacklers for big third-quarter scoring runs of 38, 75 and 67 yards, respectively.

When asked to gauge the team’s success overall this season, Nabors kept his head high.

“Awesome,” Nabors said with a smile. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

HOQUIAM 62, KING’S WAY CHRISTIAN 29

Hoquiam 6 28 21 7–62

King’s Way 0 0 14 15–29

First Quarter

H — Jack Adamsill 14 pass from Gregory Dick (kick failed)

Second Quarter

H — Artimus Johnson 45 run (Matt Brown run)

H — Anthony Nash 78 int return (kick failed)

H — Jerod Steen 46 int return (run failed)

H — Nash 52 pass from Dick (Steen run)

Third Quarter

KW — Matt Garrison 19 pass from Liam Nabors (run failed)

H — Johnson 38 run (Steen kick)

H — Johnson 75 run (Steen kick)

KW — Michael Garrison 48 pass from Nabors (pass failed)

H — Johnson 67 run (Steen kick)

Fourth Quarter

H — Steen 100 interception return (Steen kick)

KW — Matt Garrison 14 pass from Nabors (Austin Lauser kick)

KW — Nabors 12 run (Nabors run)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — KW: Johnathan Stell 33-167, Nabors 9-49, Taj Muhammad 9-52, Luke Hoffman 6-34

PASSING — KW: Nabors 12-18-4-151, Stell 0-1-1-0

RECEIVING — KW: Michael Garrison 2-63, Matt Garrison 4-59, Stell 3-21, Skyler Freeman 1-5, Riley Danberg 1-1