Liberty Lancers’ visit will end football lull

After an unscheduled break under smoky skies, Colfax football team will be cranked up Friday night to start the league part of their season. The Bulldogs, who last saw action two weeks ago when they out-battled a skilled Coeur d’Alene jayvee team at Schmuck Park, will host Liberty in the first of five league games.

Last Friday, Colfax was booked to travel to Moscow and battle the Bears in what looked like their toughest test in the non-league schedule. The game was scratched because of air quality conditions which shut down part of the Friday football schedule for the second week.

Colfax Coach Mike Morgan said the conditions, which included an area health advisory, initiated discussion early Friday with Moscow on whether or not to keep the game on the books.

“The smoke conditions were worse Friday than they were the previous week, and I think they were worse over at Moscow than they were here,” Morgan noted.

Moscow AD Allen Green relayed the decision to shut the game down about 3:15 p.m. Friday, and word was circulated to players, students and fans.

Neither team had enough leeway on their schedules to re-schedule the game over the balance of the season.

“We were both looking forward to playing that game, so it was a disappointment,” Morgan said. He added the setback probably took a bigger toll at Moscow where the Bears planned to observe homecoming.

The shutdown did give the Bulldogs’ lineup another week to recover from the rugged match with the CDA Viking team and clear the injury list to start the season.

Coach Morgan rates Liberty’s Lancer team as a team on the upswing under second-year Coach Mike Dewey.

Liberty, which was drubbed by Tekoa/ Oakesdale/Rosalia in its opener, will arrive at Colfax with a 2-1 record. Last week they rolled to a 44-13 win over Lake Roosevelt with a 24-point explosion in the second quarter.

Coach Dewey, who came to Liberty after coaching as an assistant in the GSL, has installed a pistol offense at Liberty with Match Burnham at the QB slot.

Morgan noted Burnham’s number-one plus feature is his accuracy.

“He doesn’t overthrow his receivers, and he doesn’t throw short,” he commented.

Burnham last week hit three TD passes again Lake Roosevelt.