First Mother Nature drenched the Oak Harbor High School football team, then host Arlington’s passing attack rained down on the Wildcats.

Oak Harbor built a 21-3 lead before the Eagles exploded for 35 unanswered points to win their homecoming game that was peppered by a steady rain.

Arlington upped its record to 4-1 and is tied atop the Wesco North standings with Marysville-Pilchuck with a 2-0 mark. Oak Harbor, which lost to someone other than M-P in conference for the first time since 2011, is now 1-1 in league and 2-2 overall.

The Wildcats play Marysville Getchell (0-2, 1-4) next at home at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9.

Oak Harbor controlled the action early against the Eagles, then a switch was flipped and it was all Arlington.

What changed? “A lot of little things,” Oak Harbor coach Jay Turner said, and one big one.

Defensively, the Wildcats’ tackling got sloppy; offensively, they failed to hold blocks, Turner pointed out. Oak Harbor also committed two penalties on fourth down that kept Arlington scoring drives alive.

The major difference, though, was “their quarterback got hot,” Turner said.

“Once he found his rhythm,” he added, “we couldn’t slow him down. He was dialed in.”

Arlington QB Andrew Kalahar sputtered in the first quarter. After hitting his first two passes for short gains, he connected on only one of his next eight for a minus five yards. From the second quarter on, he was 25-for-32 for 373 yards and five touchdowns; he also threw for a two-point PAT and had no interceptions.

Oak Harbor’s passing attack went the opposite direction. Tyler Snavely hit three of his first four passes for 35 yards, then connected on only one of his next nine for a minus two yards and two interceptions.

The Wildcat running game, particular its outside attack, also did a U-turn. Fullback Princeton Lollar was the only consistent threat, running between the tackles for 136 yards on 22 carries. Only four times did he fail to gain at least three yards.

Four of Oak Harbor’s eight runs around end in the second half resulted in negative yardage; only one went for double figures. In the first half, only two runs were negative and seven traveled more than 10 yards.

Savion Passmore finished with 65 yards on 10 carries, while Dyllan Harris added 64 on 12.

The Oak Harbor defense held the Arlington running game in check. The Eagles gained 78 yards on 19 carries, and 55 of those yards came late in the fourth quarter on two runs against a weary Wildcat defense.

The game started with an Arlington punt and a 81-yard touchdown drive by Oak Harbor. Snavely hooked up with Harris for a 12-yard TD on a fourth-and-seven play. Eric Jensen booted his first of three extra points, and Oak Harbor led 7-0.

The Wildcats then went 68-yards in seven plays (five for 10 yards or more) to go up 14-0 with 10:49 left in the first half.

Kalahar started clicking, but a sack halted the Eagles’ first strong drive and they had settled for Kalahar’s 25-yard field goal.

Oak Harbor quickly took back the momentum when Harris returned the kickoff to midfield, Passmore raced 42 yards to the three-yard line and Lollar bulled it in for the touchdown.

The pendulum then swung Arlington’s way and never came back.

On the first play after Lollar’s touchdown, Kalahar torched Oak Harbor with a 71-yard bomb to Kyle Bayer.

Kalahar tacked on another TD strike before the end of the half to cut the Wildcat lead to 21-16.

Arlington would score on all but two second-half possessions. One ended in a fumble, but Oak Harbor returned the ball two plays later with an interception. The other drive was halted by the final whistle.

The Wildcats turned the ball over on downs three times in the second half.

One of those came during Oak Harbor’s final threat. Down 38-21 with for minutes left, Passmore picked up a teammate’s fumble and ran 51 yards to the Arlington five-yard line. Three runs that netted zero yards and a delay of game penalty set up a fourth-and-10 pass that fell incomplete.

Oak Harbor also lost Harris, its do-everything back, to a concussion. Harris is the team’s leading receiver, top outside running threat, return man, punter and all-league safety. Because of concussion protocol, he will miss next week’s game, according to Turner.

(Dyllan Harris attempts to slip between Arlington’s Wyatt Hawthorne (44) and Ryley Nelson. Photo by John Fisken.)