Mules close with win; head to Friday playoff

The Wahkiakum Mule football team closed the regular season with a 38-12 win over the Toutle Lake Ducks last Friday and emerged from a three-team tiebreaker Monday to qualify for an inter-league crossover playoff game this coming Friday.

Friday's win put the Mules, Ducks and Mossyrock Vikings in a tie for the third, fourth and fifth places in the River League standings. On Monday, the Ducks edged the Mules and Vikings, and the Mules shut out Mossyrock and lost to Toutle. That put the Ducks in third place, the Mules in fourth and the Vikings in fifth.

The Mules will head to Aberdeen this Friday for a 7 p.m. game with the Pe Ell/Willapa Valley Titans.

"They're a big team," said Mule Coach Eric Hansen. "They do what they've done for years. They line up in a full-house T formation, run the veer option and play a four-man defensive front."

The Mule offense dominated Toutle Lake last Friday, running 34 offensive plays in the first half and 39 in the second. Meanwhile the Ducks ran a total of 23 offensive plays, 11 in the first half and 12 in the second. The Mules gained 256 yards on the ground and 51 in the air; the Ducks had 134 yards rushing and 34 passing.

Hank Ferguson got the Mules on the scoreboard with a 10-yard run at 5:28 of the first quarter. Lucas Brown scored the conversion for the 8-0 lead.

James Anderson scored on a 15-yard run early in the second quarter; Terris Record ran the conversion for a 16-0 lead. With time expiring, Brown passed to Record for a 39-yard score. A successful pass on the conversion gave the Mules a 24-0 halftime lead.

Ferguson started the third quarter with a five-yard touchdown run; Brown took care of the conversion for a 32-0 lead. Toutle Lake bounced back with two quick scores on long runs to make it 32-12. The Mules closed out the quarter with Anderson scoring on a 37-yard run; the conversion failed, leaving the score 38-12 going into the scoreless fourth quarter.

Record led the Mule runners with 108 yards on 18 carries. Ferguson gained 106 yards on 22 carries. Anderson had 39 yards on 14 carries.

Brown led the defense with seven tackles. Evan Quigley had five, Record four; Anderson, Cody Terpsma, and Isaac Moon three each; Alexander Merrill two and Dylan Ahmed and Casey Wilson one each.

"Coming off a 0-9 season last year, finishing 5-4 in league this year is really nice," Hansen said. "It's nice to have a winning season."