Prep Football: Collins Sparks Pirates in Win Over PWV

Adna’s Brady Collins (30) runs back a punt for a touchdown as PWV’s Peter Hamilton (5) gives chase on Saturday in Menlo.

HOT ONE: Brady Collins Scores 4 TDs in Adna’s 35-14 Win

By Aaron VanTuyl

avantuyl@chronline.com

MENLO — The talk on the field was all about the heat and Brady Collins.

Adna’s junior wide receiver accounted for four touchdowns in the 90-degree heat here Saturday as the Pirates notched a 35-14 win over Pe Ell-Willapa Valley in nonleague 2B football action.

“It was tough today. That was the toughest conditions I think my teams have played in in 29 years,” Adna coach K.C. Johnson said. “I was really proud of the kids for getting through it. It was not easy.”

Collins’ two most impressive scores came in the third quarter, when he returned two straight Titan punts for touchdowns. Prior to those big plays, though, the Titans had scored two unanswered touchdowns to end the first half and trail by just a slim 15-14 margin.

The first came up the left side of the field on a 50-yard punt.

“I trusted my wall,” Collins said of his special-teams teammates. “That’s my punt returners’ (touchdown). I wouldn’t have scored without them. That’s their blocking.”

Just a few minutes later, he struck again, this time up the right side of the field.

“I came around the corner and just realized the wall was there again, and that’s all them,” he added. “I just got around the corner.”

The big plays sapped a bit of energy out of the game, played with a 1 p.m. kickoff on a rare sweltering September Saturday.

“It’s definitely something to overcome, that I haven’t played in before — this hot,” Collins said. “But it showed in the second half. With our conditioning, we kept going.”

Adna opened the scoring with a 4-yard run by Cole Fay in the first quarter, and pulled ahead 15-0 in the second when Conner Weed hit Collins for a 52-yard strike.

The Titans, though, answered. Quarterback Matt Pearson found an open Ryan Shepherd, and Shepherd warded off a pair of chasing defenders near the goal line for a 59-yard touchdown. Pearson called his own number on a 5-yard run in the last minute of the first half to pull PWV within a point.

The heat, Johnson said, played a factor.

“We were letting it beat us, and they weren’t,” he said. “I was really worried at halftime, but we sucked it up.”

Collins’ returns changed the momentum in the third quarter, and the senior caught a 9-yard pass from Weed in the fourth for the final margin.

Weed finished 6 of 8 passing for 108 yards, with five of those passes going to Collins for 93 yards. Fay, a sophomore, finished with 22 carries for 139 yards and intercepted a pass.

Sophomore Peter Hamilton led PWV with 20 carries for 111 yards, and Shepherd caught three passes for 80 yards.

Ashton Dowell, a junior linebacker, played well defensively, Johnson added, and linemen Abel Ingle, Brynden Jager and Jason Chilcoate had solid performances.

“Early in the game they looked really good. They were moving people and doing a great job,” Johnson said of his line. “And Jake Dunnagan did a really nice job at center. It was his first varsity start, and I was pretty impressed.”

Adna hosts Toutle Lake in another 2B nonleague game on Friday, while Pe Ell-Willapa Valley heads to Randle to face Morton-White Pass on the same night.

At Menlo

PIRATES 35, TITANS 14

Adna            8  7  13   7 —35

Pe Ell-WV  0 14   0   0 —14
Scoring Summary

ADN — Cole Fay 4-yard run; Conner Weed to Brady Collins

ADN — Weed 52-yard pass to Collins; Weed kick

PWV — Matt Pearson 59-yard pass to Ryan Shepherd; Pearson pass to McCalden

PWV — Pearson 5-yard run; run failed

ADN — Collins 50-yard punt return; run failed

ADN — Collins 48-yard punt return; Weed kick

ADN — Weed 9-yard pass to Collins; Weed kick
Team Stats ADN PWV

First Downs        16 11

Rushing Yards 206 117

Passing Yards  108 85

Total Yards       314 202

Comp-Att-Int 6-8-0 3-11-1

Fumbles/Lost     2/1 4/2

Penalties/Yards 8/72 3/25
Individual Stats

Rushing: ADN — Cole Fay 22/139, Elmer Loose 11/76; PWV — Pete Hamilton 20/111

Passing: ADN — Weed 6-8/108; PWV — Pearson 2-10/66

Receiving: ADN — Collins 5/93; PWV — Shepherd 3/80