Porter Drake rushes for six touchdowns as Mountain View routs Richland 49-27

By the end of Friday’s game, the Mountain View student body was chanting “We love Porter!”

And Porter Drake gave the students a lot to love on Friday.

Drake rushed for 272 yards and six touchdowns as the Thunder capped their regular season with a 49-27 over Richland on Friday at McKenzie Stadium.

And while the students loved Drake, the senior loved his line.

“The line, they just played like some dogs tonight,” Drake said. “I can do none of this without my line – Juan (Pasillas-Stanton, (Ayden) Denbo, Joey (Burcham), (Rylan) Reinebach, Will (Woon), all of them. I’m so proud of them. It’s all due to them. I can do none of it with them.”

The Thunder offensive line really showed up after quarterback Cash Cook left with an injury late in the second quarter and did not return to the sideline after halftime.

“We’re just being precautious with him,” Mountain View head coach Aaron Hart said. “He wasn’t feeling so well, so we’re getting him checked out. We’ll just see what happens.”

Leading 21-7 at halftime, Akili Kamau moved from receiver to quarterback to lead the offense in the second half as the Thunder committed to their run game.

Then the Thunder ran away from Richland.

Drake rushed for 204 of his yards in the second half, and Kamau added 87 yards on 13 carries. The Thunder grounded out 424 rushing yards.

“The offensive line did a great job,” Hart said. “Akili did a really good job coming in. And it’s not easy to do, being a backup quarterback and coming in. Porter was running hard, so it was great.”

After a season-opening loss to Nooksack Valley, the Thunder have run off eight consecutive wins, most convincingly. The Thunder hope they’ve done enough to impress the seeding committee and get a good spot in the playoffs, which start next week.

Week 10 matchups will be announced Sunday.

“We hope so,” Drake said about getting a good seeding. “We’re just excited for playoffs. We’ve got to have a good week of practice and get to it, and we’re all in from here.”

MOUNTAIN VIEW 49, RICHLAND 27

Rich 0 7 7 13—27

MView 21 0 14 14—49

First quarter

MV — Porter Drake 4 run (Owen Purvis kick)

MV — Drake 50 run (Purvis kick)

MV — Cash Cook 2 run (Purvis kick)

Second quarter

R — Josh Woodard 3 run (Jason Slack kick)

Third quarter

MV — Drake 11 run (Purvis kick)

R — Sylen Kiesel-Kauhane 2 run (Slack kick)

MV — Drake 3 run (Purvis kick)

Fourth quarter

MV — Drake 5 run (Purvis kick)

R — Rayce Reeves 56 pass from Woodard (pass failed)

MV — Drake 3 run (Purvis kick)

R — Brody Bocek 10 pass from Woodard (Slack kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Richland: Jakob Brannon 20-115, Josh Woodard 7-21, Sylen Kiesel-Kauhane 2-3. Mountain View: Porter Drake 20-272, Akili Kamau 13-87, Cash Cook 5-54, JJ Thompson 1-8, Dallas Hobbs 1-3.

PASSING — Richland: Josh Woodard 14-26-2-238. Mountain View: Cash Cook 6-8-1-134, Akili Kamau 1-1-0-18.

RECEIVING — Richland: Colson Mackey 5-101, Rayce Reeves 3-91, Brody Bocek 4-41, Kooper Schmitt 1-2, Chris Daniels 1-3. Mountain View: Aiden Nicholson 3-89, Akili Kamau 2-37, Jaden Brown 1-18, Ayden Cummings 1-8.