Offensive plunder

It took just three plays.

The Pomeroy football team tallied 58 points in an explosive first quarter - using only three offensive plays - to secure its first playoff win since 2002 in the opening round of the Washington Class 1B playoffs on Friday.

"We had two tackles in the first quarter," said Northport coach Don Fox, a longtime coach at the high school level. "And I've never had that happen."

The Pirates seemed as much at ease scoring from their own goal line as their opponents'.

"The ironic part is, if we're on the 20-yard line, 80 yards away, we have an easier time scoring," said Gary Bye, a local farmer whose sons went to Pomeroy. "If we get just a little crease, these guys have no trouble scoring it. They have track speed. And they're elusive."

The Pirates' offensive weapons are numerous. Their top three options - tailback Tory Knebel, fullback Austin Reisdorph and quarterback Ryan Smith - have combined 4,581 yards, and they'll lead Pomeroy (9-1) into a quarterfinal game against Wellpinit at 3 p.m. Saturday at Pasco's Edgar Brown Stadium.

Las season, the Pirates won just four games in their second season of eight-man football.

Explained Bye, who is also writing a book about the Pirates: "In compiling the history of Pomeroy football, there are more losses than wins. We're kind of like the Cougars. Short stretches of brilliance, followed by long stretches of frustration."

Pomeroy's last foray into the eight-man ranks in 1988 yielded an 0-9 season. After that, the Pirates quickly returned to 11-man.

"I don't remember that team, other than we didn't score a lot of points," Bye said. "We had a first-year coach, who had never played eight-man before. ... It was a learning curve. It takes a little while to learn that it's about speed and space."

Small class sizes (about 25 kids) have again pushed Pomeroy down to eight-man football. And after just four wins last season, the Pirates - in their third season of eight-man football - seem to have mastered the learning curve. After allowing 40 points per game last season, they've held opponents to 27 points per game this year.

Linebacker Brendan Lueck has averaged 14 tackles per game - and the Pirates seem legitimate contenders to win their first state title.

Of course, Pomeroy's high-powered offense is what draws all the attention, and their strength is speed - Knebel and Reisdorph won state titles in track last spring, as members of a 400 relay team. (A third, backup running back Jacob Moore, also ran on that team) - But the school, which once went 17 years without a playoff appearance (between 1983 and 2000), is in the title hunt largely because of an X-factor - a surprise to both the Pirates and their opponents.

In the Pirates' eighth game of the season, against unbeaten Touchet, the Indians keyed on Pomeroy's two running backs.

But quarterback Smith, a 5-foot-9 mystery coming into this season (he'd been a receiver last year) rollicked for 251 yards and three scores on 26 carries in a 48-42 victory over Touchet which helped the Pirates claim first place in the Southeast 1B League.

"Preparing for an opponent, you try to take away as many of their strengths as you can," the Indians' coach,  Gary Dorman, said, "and we were able to take some of them away; obviously not all of them."

Knebel is perhaps the Pirates' most prominent ballcarrier, having scored 54 TDs the past two years. He is complemented by the 200-pound Reisdorph, who's known for his punishing style.

Reisdorph "hits as hard as any kid at Pomeroy I've ever seen," said John Gates, the announcer at Pirate games for 45 seasons. "He doesn't pull the kid down, it's like 'boom' - a freight train running into you. That's as apt as I can put it."

Those two complete the trio of rushers which Bye said he's holding his breath will bring Pomeroy its first state title in football.

And - since Knebel's a state champion wrestler, and Reisdorph took third, perhaps the Pirates (many of whom wrestle) could take a page from their wrestling program, which has a mandate: Always have three goals at any given time.

Coming into the season, Pomeroy's goals were to improve each week (check), defeat Cove of Oregon (check) and make the playoffs (check). They've met all their goals, so what now?

"We just want to keep getting better," Knebel said.

"This is the first time in a long time I've seen these kids play together as a team," athletic director Tim Burt said. "And they're having fun. They don't want the season to end, they're having fun.

"That's why they're still winning."

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Edelman may be contacted at bedelman@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2277.