Prep Football: Jenkins, R.A. Long sink Hockinson 47-14
Pirate Talk: Lumberjacks notch first 3-game win streak since 2014
Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com
There was a parrot on his shoulder. That’s when I knew for certain that these Lumberjacks are all the way in.
Maybe the 47-14 win over Hockinson in front of a swashbuckled Friday night home crowd was enough to make you believe. After all, it was the sort of win that precisely nobody, except for those dedicated fans with a flannel red and black and a hat to match, saw coming
If not, the R.A. Long football team is ready to circumnavigate the high seas while swinging from ropes with knives clenched between their teeth to convince you. And if you don’t believe there’s something to all this pirate talk over on the south side of Lake Sacajawea, then you must have a lot of Columbia blue in your closet.
Which brings me back to the parrot.
R.A. Long head coach Jon Barker, now in his fifth season season at the helm for the Jacks, was taking in the postgame vapors near midfield at Longview Memorial Stadium when two students descended upon him and placed a styrofoam bird that looked like it was concocted in an after-lunch art class upon his shoulder.
“There you go, Coach,” the two students told the Lumberjacks shot caller as their peers celebrated with the heroes of the night near the grandstands.
When Barker asked if they wanted their bird back the retort came quickly and assertively. “Keep it, Coach. You earned it.”
That’s when I knew.
Barker has been preaching a pirate mentality to his players all season. And as trite as it may sound to those who haven’t seen it firsthand, there’s something to be said for matching a message to an audience. And if anybody’s fit to assume the role of ghost of the Oakland Raiders in the 2A Greater St. Helens League, it’s the Lumberjacks and everyone who’s down with them.
“It’s always about that pirate energy and stealing that treasure so we knew we could go out and kick some butt,” R.A. Long senior TraMaye Jenkins confirmed.
Which brings us back around to what exactly went down Friday night when the Lumberjacks improved to 2-0 in league play and fired the cannons on the first 3-game win streak for the program since 2014.
Jenkins, a slot back and linebacker, was the main character for the Jacks in their assault on Hockinson. He finished the game with three touchdown catches and a fumble recovery. He picked up most of his yards after the catch, but looked nimble in the end zone too. He picked up yards on the ground, and he also picked up opponents who had the misfortune of trying to advance the pigskin in his vicinity.
Oh, and he threw a pass for a two-point conversion on a fake extra point after scoring the first touchdown of the game in the first quarter. Now that I think of it, this list might be shorter if I listed what Jenkins didn’t do to the Hawks.
“We just went down the checklist and TraMayne was a little bit of a dude tonight. That might be the understatement of the evening,” Barker said while the swaggy parrot sat perched. “TraMayne had a chip on his shoulder and we play our best like that.”
And let’s take a moment to remember who these Hawks are. Yes, they are now 0-4 on the season, but last week they nearly knocked off a Ridgefield team that’s been ranked as high as No. 2 in the state this season in some polls. Did I mention the 2A GSHL is weird this year?
In their ongoing quest to turn the recent power dynamic on its head the Lumberjacks had many helpful hands. Quarterback Jaxson Rivenes was chief among them as he coordinated one sustained scoring drive after another. He looked calm in the pocket. He rolled out with confidence, and even kept the ball once for a 10-yard touchdown run when he trusted his own legs more than the rapidly closing throwing lanes to any of his receivers.
Perhaps Rivenes’ most refined work came in the final 1:30 of the second quarter to help the Lumberjacks march the length of the field for another score before halftime. He began that drive with a 33-yard completion to Jenkins and completed the bookend with a 12-yard touchdown pass to his favorite target.
The ramifications of that score were amplified by the fact that it was an immediate response to the Hawks’ only touchdown of the first half. Not only did the 2-minute drill speed run put the Jacks up 33-7 at halftime, it also sent another highly conductive jolt of mania through the home crowd.
“We’re just trying to be aggressive,” Barker explained. “It’s trying to teach them, ‘Let’s go be assertive!’ I’m tired of playing from behind all the time.”
It didn’t take long for doubters, haters and commanders of fleets in the Royal British Navy to get their first clue that it was going to be a different kind of day for these Jacks who fly under a black flag.
Facing 3rd and 12 from their own 30 yard line on the first series of the game, Rivenes fired his first completion of the night to Jenkins on a slant over the middle. Jenkins caught the ball and tore up field for a first down before being hit from behind and fumbling the ball forward across the 50 yard line. As the ball took its first big hop into the air Nick Niday swooped in and plucked it from the air before scampering all the way to the end zone for a touchdown.
And with that lucky bounce in hand one might have expected the Jacks to play it safe on the ensuing point after try. Instead, Jenkins took the snap from his holder position and quickly jumped up out of his crouch and lofted a pass to the back of the end zone for Niday to notch a two-point conversion on the back of some trickery.
And from that point, it was on.
Playing in a hostile environment, the Hawks punched in just one touchdown in each half. Jasper Armstrong rumbled across the goal line for Hockinson in the second quarter from three yards out, and Easton Weber picked up another touchdown when he sliced in from 10-yards out right after halftime.
Other than that, it was all red and black attack.
Brenner Coates was another Lumberjack who had himself a night to remember. The 6-foot 6-inch sophomore defensive end helped to wreak havoc on the Hawks offense, including an emphatic sack near midfield where he crashed through the line, bear hugged the quarterback, and incidentally squeezed his helmet off as the opposing signal caller slunk to the ground. Late in the game the Jacks even called Coates’ number on three consecutive offensive plays where the tall tight end by trade flashed his speed on a long run to the end zone that was called back due to a penalty.
But you better believe the R.A. Long sideline was going absolutely berserk while their teammate was picking up speed down the near sideline.
“The Brenner Coates experiment is something we’re probably going to keep working on,” Barker promised.
Taijon Reagins also scored a touchdown for the hosts when he hauled in a 10-yard pass from Rivenes late in the third quarter. He nearly found paydirt himself in the fourth quarter when he intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 73 yards to the two yard line.
Franklin Pihl was the other Lumberjack who found the end zone on the night. His score came on a three-yard pinball up the gut in the first quarter, and he had several other big gains as well. But his biggest impact was felt on the defensive side where he was turning in suplex tackles and bone rattling hits. And then there was his presence on the sideline, prowling like some sort of do-it-yourself Captain Hook with a casted club on a broken hand, while regularly bellowing out to remind his teammates - “This is why we work!”
It’s that sort of presence that makes Pihl such a big part of what the Lumberjacks have been doing lately.
“Having Franklin carry the rock with the club and catch a pass with the club - we tried that at practice the other day and it didn’t go great,” Barker said, “So things are finally bouncing our way a little bit.”
At one point late in the game, when substitutions were happening en masse, Pihl approached a reporter on the sideline and questioned the position of his Lumberjacks in a recent power rankings poll. The working media wryly suggested that perhaps R.A. Long should drop back down toward the bottom of the rankings if it would inspire similar performances by the Jacks in the future.
It was a notion that was readily dismissed.
“I’m going to be honest with you, no matter where you rank us, we’re going to keep working hard,” Pihl said.
It’s at this moment where it’s important to remind readers where the Lumberjacks are coming from. Their program has been on a downswing for nearly a decade and turnout has been iffy at best in recent years. Last season they went 1-8, securing just the third win in Barker’s tenure..
“I think overall both our offense and defense really clicked and this is a turning point for R.A. Long football,” Jenkins said. “It feels great. All the guys before, we wish we would’ve had that, but this group is good kids and we’re just making it happen.”
Now they’ve won three in a row, and most importantly, Barker has the entire school and everyone who flies the red and black flag brimming over with the newfound confidence of outlaw sailors who’ve successfully located the X on their map.
“After the Castle Rock game there were some people saying this and some people talking crap and we just said, ‘Hey, if this is gonna work we’ve got to trust each other,’” Barker said. “The mantra has been ‘Pirate Energy.’”
Now, it’s safe to say Barker has a horde of believers at his back. And as Peter Pan taught everyone during his epic pirate battles in Never Never Land - “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”
As for the resurgent Lumberjack nation, they believe alright. All that’s left to do is see how high they’ll go.
R.A. Long (3-1, 2-0 league) will play at Columbia River on Friday at 7 p.m.
Hockinson (0-4, 0-2) will host Woodland on Friday at 7 p.m.
Love the article !!! Always love reading them .. Tra had 4 touchdowns:)
Great Article! Great job jacks! They are the raiders of 2A but these boys will not give up. Proud of them, wish the energy could’ve come alittle sooner but better late than never 🏴☠️