By Kyle Howard

The Hazen Highlanders took on the Evergreen Wolverines in a Seamount match up at Highline Stadium Friday night. Both teams were winless in league play so far this season.

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Hazen got things started early by putting together a 58 yard drive that ended in a 19 yard touchdown reception from Tony Nipert to J.D. Peterson. On Evergreens next possession a bad snap was recovered by Hazen to set up great field position and they then scored on a 30 yard touchdown run by Frankie Johnson to increase their lead 14-0. Everything continued to go Hazen’s way in the 2nd quarter as they put together an 89 yard drive that was topped off with quarterback Tony Nipert rushing for the touchdown.

Hazen continued to roll into the 2nd half putting together another impressive march down field to make it 27-0 on another touchdown run, this time by Tray Brown. Evergreen was able to get things going and got the ball down to the 25 yard line, but a pass was picked off by Hazen’s Cody Moorhead and was returned 75 yards for the touchdown. Moorhead was injured on the play and was out for the rest of the game. Near the end of the 3rd quarter Evergreen was finally able to put some points on the board, scoring with 19 seconds left with a Larry Peneueta touchdown run.

The 4th quarter began with Hazen possession; they pushed the ball down to Evergreens 34 yard line where a touchdown pass was caught by tight end Dominic Orsillo, pushing their lead to 41-7. Evergreen began their next position on their own 23 yard line when QB Isaiah Thomas completed a great pass to Manu Tuitoelau down the right sideline for a gain of 74 yards. Tuitoelau was tackled just shy of the end zone at the 3 yard line. Evergreen was set up for the 3 yard touchdown run by Thomas on the following play, the point after was missed.

Later in the 4th quarter Hazen went for a 1st down on 4th and 4 at the 49 yard line but Evergreen was able to strip the ball for a change of possession. Nearing the end of the game Evergreen put together a drive that placed them at Hazen’s 17 yard line. Hakeem Trotter rushed into the end zone for another Evergreen touchdown narrowing the gap to 22 points; Evergreen went for the 2 points but failed to convert.

The final score was Hazen 41, Evergreen 19. Despite having a rough 1st half Evergreen ended with over 350 total yards of offense with 3 rushing touchdowns and scoring all 19 points in the 2nd half. Hazen accumulated over 400 total yards and racked up 3 interceptions on defense.

Evergreen's next game is at Foster, Friday, October 7th at 7:00 pm.