by Michael Carman

KELSO — Flashes of Forks’ football future were on display as the Spartans hung tough with No. 4 Toledo (9-1) for a half before fading in a 63-20 winner-to-state Class 2B District 4 Crossover playoff.

“A fairly typical story to our season, we got worn down physically and they did a great job of running the football,” coach Trevor Highfield said. “They ran the ball really well, their RB and QB did a good job with the ball in their hands and we didn’t tackle well in some big moments.”

The Spartans spotted Toledo a pair of scores to open the game, but roared back to cut the lead to 14-13 late in the first half after a rushing touchdown by sophomore Kaden Ward and the first of two touchdown passes to Gage Willenbrink.

Toledo had answers, going up 21-13 with about four minutes left until the break, and capitalizing after allowing a big gain on the ground by Forks quarterback Bubba Hernandez-Stansbury.

Stansbury broke off a 45-yard scamper, but the Spartans’ suffered a pair of sacks and were forced to punt, setting up a quick Toledo score and a 28-13 halftime score.

Hernandez-Stansbury completed 13-of-25 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns, one a 66-yarder to Gage Willenbrink and the other another long score to Willenbrink according to Forks’ coach Trevor Highfield.

Toledo broke open the game completely early in the third quarter when the Riverhawks blocked and recovered a punt for a touchdown.,

“We had a punt block for a touchdown and a miscued snap and another one where they took the ball and got us inside the 20 and that kind of steamrolled,” Highfield said.

Running back and linebacker Kade Highfield left the game with a knee injury in the first half.

Highfield said his son is out of the hospital but didn’t break a bone and is in a brace.

“We couldn’t get anything going in the run game especially after Kade’s injury, their defensive line was really good,” Highfield said.

The Spartans wrapped the season at 3-7 overall.

“We suited up 24 kids, it is a challenge and they are young, but the majority of our players at impactful positions are freshmen or sophomores. We had a lot of learning opportunities this season, a bunch of positives to take away with such a young group and being put on the field in a real playoff situation is only going to help them moving forward.”