Referees no-show puts brakes on Bulldogs-Broncos

Oct 30, 20130

Friday’s big collision of unbeaten league teams never happened when a crew of officials never reported for duty Friday night at Ritzville.

The Colfax Bulldogs and fans who made the trip to see the league’s two 4-0 teams collide, had to turn around and travel back home.

Greg Whitmore, LRS coach and athletic director sent an apology to the Bulldogs and commended Colfax players, coach and fans for coping with the mishap.

Whitmore noted the blown game date was a big disappointment for the Broncos who were set to honor 11 seniors off the team which won the state 2B title last year and are undefeated this year.

“I don’t think I’ve seen it happen in football,” Coach Mike Morgan, who also formerly served as Colfax athletic director, commented. He noted scheduling mistakes can happen in baseball and basketball where weather conditions can lead to a scramble in re-booking games.

Friday at Ritzville both teams were at the introduction stage to start the game when Coach Whitmore realized the officials had not arrived. Both coaches went to an office and attempted to find out what happened and learned the Colfax-LRS game never made it to the Spokane Officials Association assignment sheet.

Morgan reported they made some last-ditch calls to recruit a crew but that turned out to be impossible at kickoff time on a Friday night.

Calls were also made to WIAA officials to chart a course of action and the game has now been set for next Tuesday, Nov. 5, at Ritzville.

The postponement still leaves the question of who will land first, second and third in the NE slots.

Colfax will resolve part of the lockup when they host Reardan Friday night. Reardan, which shut out Davenport 14-0 Friday, has a 4-1 league mark. Their lone league loss had been to the Broncos.

Coach Morgan said he expects the chiefs to arrive with their standard version of straight-ahead football. Coach Eric Nikkola again has the Indians rolling up yards out of the wishbone formation.

Reardan features a heavyweight line which provides the power to make the wishbone work in most games.

Besides countering the center power of Reardan, the Bulldogs’ defenders will have to contain Clinton Jenny, believed to be the fastest back in the NE this year. Jenny broke out last week against Davenport for a 43-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.

“He’s really fast. Once he breaks open nobody can catch him,” Morgan said.

Lind/Ritzville/

Sprague will travel to Liberty Friday night to play the Lancers. A normal pre-game call would favor the Broncos, but they will make the trip with five players gone for the FFA nationals.

“I know, I wouldn’t want play at Liberty with five of my experienced players out of the lineup,” Coach Morgan commented.

Liberty will host after a 16-19 loss to Mabton in a non-leaguer. The other league win in the Friday round was a 39-34 win for Northwest Christian over Springdale.

Javelin-16. Brown 119-6, (153-3).

Long jump-6. Fulfs 18-3, 19. Douglas Wall 15-10 (19-9).

High jump-12. Tim Cornelius 5-0 (6-2).

Pole vault: 1. Skylar Simonson 11-0, 8. Sam Daily 9-6, 14.Reece Sanders 7-0.

Triple Jump-5.Fulfs 37-5.0( 41-11.)

GIRLS EVENTS:

100-Hurdles-4. Bailey Mackleit 17.57 ,16. Holly Rimbey 21.85, (16.94).

300 hurdles-2.Mackleit 51.7, (50.25).

4 x 100 relay-3. Amelie Bruya, Mackleit, Sheer, S.Cai 51.47, (51.13).

4 x 200 relay-3.Bruya, Mackleit, Sheer, Cai 1:49.39, (1:47.92).

Shot put-1.Nicole Sheer 34-2.5

Discus- 1 Taylor Cai 122-6, 5.Sheer 95-9