Facing adversity in the team’s second matchup of the regular season, the Rainier Mountaineers football team prevailed against Raymond-South Bend with a 43-34 victory over the Ravens on the road.
Rainier head coach Andy Bartell said quarterback Jake Meldrum faced a minor ankle injury during the contest against the Ravens, causing him to vacate his spot on the Mountaineers defense— prioritizing his role as the offense’s quarterback.
“Raymond-South Bend ran quarterback option, and so our game plan for that was assignment based. Jake (Meldrum) had his assignment down on the first three drives, and I think we held them to negative yards. Then Jake rolled his ankle rolling out in a boot play for us on offense, and so we didn’t play him the rest of the night on defense,” Bartell said. “We had to face some adversity towards the end of the game. We had some guys go down, defensively, towards the end of the game. We had some backups, some young guys, in there, and they didn’t know the scheme as well as the starters. We lost the lead late, but we didn’t panic.”
Bartell added that the team played four or five defensive linemen in the stand-up defensive end position trying to fill Meldrum’s absence on defense. He said it took almost until the fourth quarter to find “the right mixture” of who could fill the senior’s spot on the defensive line.
“But for those young guys to get in there, it felt like a complete win. That’s what I told the team. Everybody was getting in on the action,” Bartell said. “We’ve stayed trying to run the football. That’s what we’re trying to get to with our identity is becoming a rushing team, being able to slow the game down and eat away quarters, and then play aggressive defense.”
The senior quarterback Meldrum was proud of his team for its bounce-back efforts against Raymond-South Bend after a 43-7 loss against Tenino in the season opener on Friday, Sept. 6. He highlighted running backs Dorien Cano and Jayden Alegarbes and wide receiver Hunter Howell as standouts during the contest on Sept. 13.
“It felt good to bounce back with a win, especially to put up that many points after scoring just seven in the first game. It felt good to bounce back,” Meldrum said. “We just wanted to get in there, and, after last week’s performance, we wanted to play together as a team and have fun while on the field.”
Bartell agreed, noting that Cano had a “big night” offensively, including over 100 rushing yards and several 1-yard touchdowns inside the red zone. He described the junior rusher as a bruising running back, adding he fought for tough yards late in the week two contest.
Bartell also highlighted Howell, who displayed his all-purpose ability for the Mountaineers as the senior rushed for a touchdown from the backfield and hauled in a catch for six points as a wide receiver against the Ravens.
“He’s a big piece of what we do offensively,” Bartell said. “For those two older guys to step up in a game they needed to, they played every snap — defense and offense. For them not to run out of gas there at the end, and go down and score when we needed a touchdown, it was a good win for us.”
Bartell said the team bounced back from the week one loss to Tenino with a win in the face of adversity due to the accountability and leadership from the team’s five captains.
“They’ve taken that role and ran with it,” Bartell said. “They hold guys to the highest standards, as easy as making sure the guys’ toes are on the right side of the line during warm-ups, or that the team runs their hardest during conditioning drills. It’s not me having to get on those players. It’s the five captains. They’ve really taken those roles on.”
The Mountaineers will play their week three game at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20, against Morton-White Pass at Morton High School. The contest marks Rainier’s opening matchup in the Central 2B League this season.
“We’re going to keep the same mindset this week. We want to build on the momentum and keep it going,” Bartell said. “It’s our first league game. We’re excited for the opportunity to go 1-0 in league. We’re going to come in with a real similar philosophy. We want to run it, get Hunter downfield when we can, and go from there. I think our offensive linemen have really been getting going, too.”
