Washougal’s offense fires on all cylinders in opener

When a new football season kicks off, it’s common to assume many teams’ defenses are one step ahead of their offenses.

Washougal and Mountain View found that to be true for the opening minutes of their non-league clash Thursday at McKenzie Stadium, until the game turned into an all-out track meet.

After both teams came up empty on their opening possessions, Washougal scored touchdowns on five consecutive drives and outlasted Mountain View in a 56-33 shootout win.

“We saw our defense making stops. It puts trust in us. … We knew we were going to go down there and score,” Washougal quarterback Tripp Leifsen said.

In his first start at quarterback for the Panthers, the 6-foot-1 senior displayed that same confidence on the field, throwing for 288 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

He provided the final exclamation point in the fourth quarter when he took off running inside the 10-yard line and ran over a Thunder defender at the goal line for a touchdown.

“We talk all the time about, at quarterback, you’re just dealing the cards, you’re just getting the ball to playmakers,” Washougal coach Dave Hajek said. “He did a great job doing that tonight. We have a lot of really good athletes.”

That group of skill players, one of the deeper groups Hajek has seen at Washougal in recent memory, attacked from multiple spots.

Leading rusher Hunter Miller tallied 95 yards on the ground, while Royce Jones had two rushing touchdowns.

Eight receivers registered at least one catch, led by Parker Cherry’s five catches for 85 yards.

Luca DiGiacomo, Casey Crosby and Deondrae Goodell all scored touchdowns of 20-plus yards, flashing their playmaking potential in space.

Goodell, meanwhile, broke out for a 95-yard kickoff return to swing momentum back to Washougal in the second quarter after Mountain View pulled within 14-13 on Cashton Liedtke’s 63-yard touchdown pass to Caden Reinebach.

Liedtke finished with 472 passing yards and four touchdowns, including one apiece to DJ Wilford (10 catches, 139 yards) and Caden Reinebach (six catches, 173 yards).

The Panthers finished the quarter with three unanswered touchdowns to take a 35-13 lead to halftime, then scored on back-to-back drives to open the third quarter for a 36-point cushion.

“This (win) will give us the momentum to go into the whole year, just on fire (and) ready to go for whoever we face,” Goodell said. “I think we’re ready.”

Washougal coaches took a more cautious approach, though with plenty of reason for optimism.

“I think we have a lot of potential, we saw a lot of great things, but like I told our kids, we shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit, especially early on,” Hajek said. “… I was overall happy, but also looking at it going, ‘OK, we can get a lot better.’ ”