Broncos to face Bulldogs at Schmuck

Colfax Bulldogs will host Lind/Ritzville/Sprague Friday night in the fourth round of the NE league action. The two clubs will open the grid season on the Colfax field which was sidelined two weeks ago because of the track rebuilding project at Schmuck Park.

The Broncos, who graduated 14 seniors off last year's league championship team, have already sustained two defeats this year in league play.

Colfax goes into the home field opener after a solid 41-0 shutout over the Wilbur/Creston Wildcats last Friday at Wilbur. The Bulldogs rolled more than 400 yards on offense in the big win which saw Caleb Brown throw two TD passes and Dane Hall book more than 100 yards rushing and two scores.

Colfax scored one in each of the first two quarters at Wilbur and then came out in the second half and roared for 25 additional points against Wildcat hosts.

Colfax coach Mike Morgan said the Colfax running game began to roll in the first half, and the Wildcats stacked up its defense to stop it. That opened up the rest of the turf for the Bulldog passing game in the second half.

Colfax QB Brown, who finished with a 12-17 passing night for 149 yards, hit Christopher Jones on a 34-yard shot to start the second half. The Bulldogs hit the end zone again in the third quarter when Hall rambled seven for his second TD of the night.

At the top of the fourth quarter, Brown linked up with Jared Kneale for a 15-yard TD pass play to bump the score to 34-0. Colfax attempts for extra points on conversion plays failed after the first three TDs of the second half.

The Bulldogs finished out the scoring with a drive featuring reserve backs Matthew Neu and Gavin Hammer. Hammer, who had four carries for the night, booked the last score with a five-yard plunger.

Derek Ward kicked the extra point for the lone Colfax bonus score of the half.

Coach Morgan credited the Bulldog defense with shutting down the Wildcats, who made it into the red zone four times during the night, but could not get across the goal line.

Twice Wilbur/Creston advanced inside the 10 and still could not get into the zone.

"Our guys just wouldn't give up," Morgan commented.

Hall had five solo tackles on defense, and Chris Aspenwall booked four solo stops. Jared Thompson and Brown each had three stops.

Colfax last week in practice sessions worked on punt blocking, and they got one in the first quarter to set up the opening score. Brown was credited with the block, and Kneale recovered it for the first score.

Hall booked the first of his two TDs with two minutes left in the first half.

Lind/Ritzville/Sprague comes to town with a 1-2 record after sustaining a 63-7 road loss to Northwest Christian last week. The Broncos league win was 35-6 the previous week over the same Wildcat team Colfax defeated at Wilbur Friday. They were blanked 0-27 by Asotin in their league opener.

Coach Morgan said the big loss by LRS to Northwest Christian last Friday came after the Broncos lost their quarterback, Bryce Esser, early in the game. Esser is not expected to start for the Broncos here Friday.

The Broncos have topped Colfax the last five times the two NE rivals have collided.

Feature win in the NE league Friday was the collision of Liberty and Asotin, both tagged as power teams in the NE campaign this year. Liberty stopped the Panthers 22-20 in triple overtime to stay on top of the league race at 3-0.

Northwest Christian also rolled to 3-0 with its big win over LRS.

Reardan dropped Davenport 26-13 to bump the Gorillas out of the undefeateds in the early league listings.

Team statistics: Colfax: 62 plays for 402 yards with 6.5 ave. per play, 12-18 passing for 149 yards and 2 TDs, 44-53 rushing for 5.8 ave., 0 turnovers, 22 first downs with 11 rushing, 9 passing, 3 penalties for 30 yards, 27:26 possession time.

Wilbur Creston: 138 yards on 47 plays with 2.9 ave., 9-23 passing for 77 yards, 8.6 ave., 24-61 rushing for 2.5 ave., 9 penalties for 70 yards, one turnover, 20:34 possession time.

Individual statistics: Rushing-Hall 19-109, Neu 7-69, Mones 7-32, Matt Hockett 1-18, Brown 5-16, Gavin Hammer 4-9. Passing-Brown 12-17 for 149 yards, Hall 0-1; Receiving-Kneale 5-60, Jones 2-46, Hall 3-26, Darien Ward 2-17.