NE teams stop local eights

State football bids for three county eight-man teams ended Friday and Saturday when NE contenders booked a sweep to advance to the next round.

Friday, Columbia/Inchelium posted a 22-16 win at St. John to stop the Eagles, and Wilbur/Creston nipped the GP Vikings at Palouse 14-12.

Saturday at Gonzaga Prep, Cusick booked a second consecutive state stop on the Colton Wildcats with a 52-6 crunch.

The three NE winners were seeded into the playoff as the second, third and fourth place teams out of the NE behind Almira/Coulee/ Hartline, the NE champs.

ST. JOHN/ENDICOTT Coach Bob Clements said ball possession was a key in the battle with Columbia/Inchelium. The Timberwolves came at the Eagles with a solid ground game which kept the ball out of the hands of the Eagles offense.

“They played us a lot like Pomeroy did,” Clements commented.

The Eagles had trouble stopping Tyler Zacherle who booked a 10-159 passing night.

After being stopped in their ground game, the Eagles went to the air. QB Kyle Raynor hit nine of 16 passes for 254 yards. Evan Raynor had 110 yards in eight receptions.

The Eagles trailed 16-0 at the half but closed the gap in the last two quarters. The T-wolves’ lead was trimmed to 22-16 when Evan Raynor collected a 35-yard pass from his brother with 1:50 left on the clock.

SJE executed an on-side kick and recovered the ball on the 30, but their last drive ended with a fumble, one of five SJE turnovers which hurt the Eagles during the game.

The NE team managed to keep the ball for the rest of the game.

The playoff loss was the third for the Eagles this year. The season, which saw SJE run a string of league wins until the last round game with Pomeroy, was the best for the Eagles since they took the state B title in 2006.

GARFIELD/PALOUSE also fought a comeback battle Friday and came up short. The WC Wildcats stacked a 14-6 lead at the half. The Vikings came back with another TD after the break, but they missed both conversions.

The Vikes failed to collect on two other drives which came within range in the second half. One of the drives ended in a Wildcat interception.

JB Lange scored for the Vikes in the second quarter, and Riley Hodges broke out for a 52-yard scoring run in the third quarter.

Viking frustration surfaced in the yard count. They had 235 yards compared to just 76 for the Wildcats. Lange finished with 102 yards, and Hodges had 115.

The loss ended the Vikings first bid in the state playoffs after they officially dropped to the eight-man division this year.

COLTON sustained a 52-6 crunch against at the hands of Cusick, the same team that stopped them last year. The two clubs hooked up on the artificial turf at Gonzaga Saturday.

Cusick went into the round after taking a big loss to ACH last week in the matchup of the two NE divisions.

Wildcat Coach Clark Vining noted four turnovers in the first half took a toll the Wildcats couldn’t erase.

“We also has a lot of trouble stopping their quarterback,” Vining noted.

Tyler Edwards scored three of the Panther TDs, all of them on breakout runs, and he hit Shem Norton for a 16-yard Panther TD pass.

Lone score for the Wildcats came in the second quarter when Holdan Druffel reeled in a 21-yard TD pass from Josh Straughan.

At that point the score stood at 14-6, but the Panthers erupted for three more TDs to lead 36-6 at the break.

Colton, number-three qualifier out of the SE, finished the season at 4-7.

The NE contenders will be in action at Gonzaga Saturday for two rounds of games before Colfax and Lind/Ritzville/ Sprague face off in the 2B quarter-final at 5 p.m.