MARYSVILLE — The Marysville Getchell football team is already gearing up for the playoffs and battled hard against Oak Harbor on Friday, Oct. 12, losing a 28-14 game to the team ranked No. 6 in the state.

On a night with one of the first heavy rainfalls of the season, the Chargers initially fell behind Oak Harbor as the Wildcats put three touchdowns on the board. The first half almost ended in a shut out for the Wildcats until Chargers’ quarterback Dylan Diedrich threw a 25-yard pass to wide receiver Zander Seymer to put some points on their side of the board and they went into halftime trailing by a score of 21-7 to the Wildcats.

The Chargers had several more opportunities for a touchdown, but fumbles and turnovers hurt their chances of scoring. They put pressure on the Wildcats offensively, but they didn’t get the necessary scores.

They scored again in with four minutes left in the fourth quarter, when running back Dylan Smith carried the ball in for a 1-yard touchdown, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap on the scoreboard.

“Oak Harbor is a really good football team,” said MG head coach Davis Lura. The Wildcats remain undefeated in league play with a 3-0 record and a 6-1 record overall. “We started to move the ball, but fumbles hurt us. You can’t do that against a team that’s ranked sixth or seventh in the state.”

Lura told his team after the game that they played hard, but going forward they need to focus.

“Dylan Diedrich did a really great job tonight, he didn’t turn over the ball at all. But we had a lot of opportunities in the red zone and a couple of times we were in there, we could have scored,” said Lura. Injuries were also a problem for the Chargers, with a few players already out for the game and another injury during it.

“Ryan Gamble got hurt in the first half and that hurt us a little bit,” said Lura.

The loss to the Wildcats is inspiration for the team to train harder and focus in the next two weeks, as they head into postseason play. Their next opponent is Shorecrest.

“Obviously we have to look at the film and we have to focus on scoring every time and getting more turnovers defensively,” said Lura. “We are matching people with strength and speed, so now we are working on that football IQ, knowing what to do in each situation.”

The Chargers got a special treat as their first year coach, Bronson Castellano, visited from Portland to watch them play.

“They are leaps and bounds from where they were last year,” said Castellano. “It’s a treat to see how much growth there has been this year. They gave [Oak Harbor] a run for their money.”

The Chargers play a home game against Shorecrest on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.