Yellow Pages
MOUNT VERNON — Anacortes quarterback Chris Stoneham had most of the dazzling runs, but it was the Mount Vernon football team’s signal-caller Ray Walser’s unopposed scamper into the end zone that had the biggest impact.
In a game pitting two squads using wide-open, no-huddle shotgun offenses, Walser’s perfect ball fake proved the difference in a 20-16 Mount Vernon victory Friday night in the season-opening Northwest Conference contest for both teams.
“It feels great,” said Mount Vernon coach Jaxon Schweikert, who won his debut as a Bulldogs coach. “We made it harder on ourselves. We’d have four, five, six good plays in a row, then have a couple bad plays and take ourselves out of scoring chances. For a first game, that’s to be expected, though.”
Anacortes extended a two-point halftime lead to 16-7 early in the third quarter, but Mount Vernon responded with a pair of touchdown drives.
Junior Jake Weber spelled Walser at quarterback and led a six-play drive, accounting for all 66 yards. He threw for 33 yards and ran for the other 33, including a 1-yard touchdown run to pull Mount Vernon within two.
Walser returned the next drive and led a four-play, 71-yard attack, but it was the fourth play that will be remembered the longest. Faking a sweep around right, Walser tucked the ball against his hip and curled around the left end.
No one followed. Walser could have crawled on all fours and covered the 43 yards for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdowns.
All 11 Anacortes defenders, every official and probably 95 percent of the crowd followed the other players.
“I didn’t even think I had the ball,” Walser joked after the game.
Both teams employed similar offenses, spreading the field with four or five receivers and leaving the quarterback as the team’s primary carrier.
Walser carried 20 times for 50 yards, a number skewed by four center snaps over his head that cost him 60 yards rushing.
The Bulldogs’ starting center, Nick Hayes, was injured in practice on Thursday, a bad situation for a team that leaves its quarterback in deep shotgun formation.
Weber added 11 carries for 36 yards from the quarterback position.
The Bulldogs’ two quarterbacks handled the ball 55 times and only handed off seven times. Walser threw for 125 yards and Weber added 33 passing.
The pair were a combined 16-for-24.
Likewise on the other sideline, most of Anacortes’ highlights came with the ball in Stoneham’s hands.
The junior, just named the team’s starting quarterback this week, proved elusive and highly improvisational.
He accounted for 228 of his team’s 245 yards, finishing with 79 rushing and 149 passing, along with several highlight-caliber kick and punt returns.
“I’d say 85 percent of it is made up as I go,” Stoneham said. “Mount Vernon has some good defensive ends.”
Stoneham’s biggest run was the one that didn’t count, however.
On a fourth-and-one late in the third quarter, Stoneham took an end-around and went 21 yards for what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown. The play was called back because of a hold, however, and then sacked on the subsequent play to turn the ball over on downs.
From that point on, Mount Vernon’s defense finally corralled him. Anacortes didn’t get a first down in the fourth quarter until the final minute of the game. The Seahawks never got the ball over midfield again.
“Their QB could scoot,” Schweikert said. “They do a good job coaching their kids. Their line knew what to do. That QB was hard to get.”
“He’s a great athlete,” Anacortes coach Charlie Bell added. “We’re going to have to do a lot of polishing, but he’s going to get better and better.”
The teams swapped big-play touchdowns early on. Anacortes linebacker Carenza Farrell outwrestled a Mount Vernon receiver for a Walser pass and returned it 90 yards for the game’s first score less than four minutes into the game.
A missed extra point left the score at 6-0 — for about 14 seconds.
Those seconds were all it took Colin Findley-Meier to return the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for a score and a 7-6 lead.
Anacortes got the lead back before halftime on a Matt Cole 23-yard field goal and extended it early in the third quarter. Alec Mavar took a screen pass from Stoneham, made a defender miss and beat the Bulldogs down the sideline for a 46-yard touchdown.
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
