POULSBO — The end of a tradition and the beginning of a team were played out at the NKHS football field Wednesday night.

At the final buzzer of the Kingston/Poulsbo Junior High match-up, the teams were no longer rivals.

Kingston got things rolling early, taking a two-touchdown lead in the first quarter. The Cavs’ Andy Smith was too much for Poulsbo to handle in the early going. Three plays into the game, he started with a bang when he intercepted a pass and ran it back nearly 40 yards for the first score of the game. Later in the quarter, he took a screen pass around the left flank of the Panthers’ defense 80 yards for the touchdown. Point after was good; 16-0 Kingston.

Already with two touchdowns in the first quarter, Smith went back to work on defense. On third and 13, Poulsbo quarterback Kevin Stringer lofted up a desperation pass, and Smith stole it giving the Cavs the ball at their own 21.

On the first play of the new series, Kingston ran another quick pass to Smith. This time, he weaved through the right side of Poulsbo’s defense for a 65-yard touchdown with 12 seconds left in the first.

“He is such a versatile back,” Kingston coach Tony Chisholm said. “Whenever he touches the ball anything can happen.”

With a scattered blue and pink sunset glowing behind the nearly-full Viking Stadium, Poulsbo took the offensive to start the second frame.

They scratched and clawed; finally Stringer took the Panthers into the red zone on a quarterback sneak. On the next play, wingback Alex Fuchs ran in Poulsbo’s only points of the half.

Defensively for the Panthers, Mack Kunold grabbed two interceptions in the second quarter. His first pick set up a drive ending in a fourth down fumble. Then, with less than a minute left, Kingston was 30 yards out, searching for six before the half. Quarterback Paul Bagala, looking to the endzone, spiraled the ball short, right into the hands of Kunold. Momentum shifted to Poulsbo.

Straight out of the half-time break, the momentum shifted. On the opening second-half kickoff, Smith took the kick and exploded again, dicing 85 yards through the Panthers for his fourth touchdown.

Twelve seconds into the half, Kingston took a hefty lead, 28-8.

“I just told the guys, ‘Look you can compete with this team,’” Panthers coach David Denton said. It worked but didn’t spark his team until Kingston scored one more touchdown on a plunge from Taylor Chisholm.

In the fourth quarter, Stringer took to the air scoring a 40-yard pass to Sam Weldin, energizing the Poulsbo squad.

Later in the quarter, Stringer put up six more points on a quarterback sneak, and the game was within reasonable reach, 34-22. The inevitability of time ran out for the Panthers, but all was not lost according to coach Denton.

“This is another example of how, weekly, we get better,” Denton said of the game. “We’re measuring our success by our progress.”

Out of the three Panthers who scored, Fuchs and Weldin hadn’t put points on the board until the game. Denton said it was Poulsbo’s best offensive game of the season.

For the Cavs, Smith was prime with four touchdowns and two interceptions. Coach Chisholm called it a break-out game for Smith.

Chisholm was also impressed and enthused about his defense, noting that Josh Byers was impressively intense all night.

Both teams agreed the game was fun. It was also the last time they will face each other on the gridiron with the transition the school district is making following this year. The game brings the end of a 12-year tradition.

“It’s all about building the program from the ground up,” coach Chisholm said. “Hopefully the kids will stick with it, and next year NK will have yet another strong sophomore class.”

Just as coach Denton told his squad, “at the end of the game you are going to be teammates.”