Colfax playoff run ends against Broncos veterans

A young Colfax team which picked up traction for a playoff run at the end of the season, came to the end of the football road Friday night on the Cheney High School field.

The Bulldogs were again shut out by the veteran Lind/Ritzville/Sprague Broncos, 43-0, in the state quarterfinal round of the 2B playoffs.

The defeat ended the Colfax season with a 6-5 record.

Coach Mike Morgan noted overall he and the other coaches have a high regard for what the Colfax team accomplished this year. The Bulldogs rolled through the season with just four seniors. They were dropped twice during the league run, but wound up as one of three NE teams in the quarterfinals.

Reardan, which was stopped 14-7 by Adna, was the other NE entry in the final eight.

“These things run in cycles,” Morgan noted.

Lind/Ritzville/Sprague, the defending champions, have rolled out an undefeated record so far this season. The Broncos this year will graduate 12 seniors off a team which brought home the state trophy last year under the guidance of Coach Greg Whitmore and crew.

“We went up there as underdogs, but we appreciated the opportunity to go for an upset,” Morgan commented on the Cheney finale.

The Broncos earlier blanked Colfax 39-0. Coach Morgan credited the Broncos with getting the job done Friday night, particularly in game situations where they needed a big play.

“That’s what good teams do; they can come up with the plays,” he noted.

After taking the kickoff, the Broncos were able to sustain their opening drive with a series of third-down bailouts, some of them coming after Colfax defense made top quality stops on the first two downs.

Connor O’Neill, one of the senior veterans, scored the first of his three touchdowns on a five-yard run with 5:15 left in the quarter. O’Neill totaled 125 yards on the night.

The first score came after Bronco QB Dylan Hartz, also a senior, made a 12-yard escape run to keep the drive alive.

O’Neill came back to hit it again on a 65-yard score and the Broncos finished the first frame with a 15-0 lead.

LRS stretched the lead to 21-0 with 5:05 left in the half when Hartz hit Ryan Whitmore who was all alone in front of the Colfax bench. The 6-7 senior loped over open ground all the way to the end zone for a 52-yard scoring play.

The zinger for the first half came when the Broncos again took possession of the ball and managed to scratch out one more TD in the last three seconds of the half. Hartz again hit Whitmore on a crossing pattern to get the ball on the three-yard line.

The Broncos had three seconds to collect, and they did it with a power play to O’Neill who scored in a vertical mode.

Colfax senior running back Levi Hardy, who totaled 90 yards in his last game for the Bulldogs, cracked a 21-yard romp up the middle to start the second half.

The quick blast of Colfax offense was stopped when Hartz picked off a Mark Webber pass two plays later and the Broncos converted that into another TD with Tyler Frederick scoring on a plunger.

Later in the quarter, sophomore Jacob Saetre scored the last TD on a 27-yard run

Coach Morgan credited his four seniors with providing a load of leadership.

Linemen Ray Compton and Trenton Moore and receiver Austin Getz, who had a big part of the post season run with his punt returns, were the other seniors on the team.

The coach noted Colfax carved out another month of action by defeating Tri-Cities Prep in the crossover round at Pasco and then upsetting White Swan on the Cougars’ home field last week.

The extended season bodes well for a Colfax team which will return a lineup of 20-plus senior and junior veterans when football season rolls around next year.

Lind/Ritzville/Sprague will now advance to play Adna, the 14-7 eliminator of Reardan at Centralia, in the semifinal round.

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

High jump-1.Scout Cai 5-2.

Javelin-4. Taylor Cai 91-3, 14. Cacey Hall 68-11, (128-5).

Pole vault: 2. Scout Cai 8-6, 9.Hall 6 -6 (9-7).