Eagles fly in win over the Timberwolves

ST. JOHN – The Tekoa-Rosalia (1-2, 1-1) Timberwolves headed to St. John to take on the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles in an intercounty, interleague matchup.

St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse (2-0, 1-0) had looked strong in its season opener, shutting out the Garfield-Palouse Vikings 55-0, but were on a bye week in Week 2. The team continued to look strong coming out the bye – beating Tekoa-Rosalia 44-14 in a physical contest.

"(We're) a little beat up after this one," Eagles coach John Hergert said. "We got some key players who're banged up pretty good. We'll see how they bounce."

The game was the most physical game of the year for both squads and players were injured on either team.

"What I told (my players) in the huddle was be prepared," Timberwolves coach Ron Rogers said. "Because they're gonna come out and hit you in the mouth. And that's what they did. They came out and hit us in the mouth first. And once that happened, they set the tone... second half we were even with them. (We) came out ready and prepared in the second half."

The first quarter made the game seem like it was going to be a low-scoring affair – with senior running back Tanner Fleming accounting for the only score of the game through one quarter – a 6-0 advantage to St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse.

The Eagles marched down the field and converted a two-point conversion to take a 14-0 lead about a minute through the second quarter, but the Timberwolves responded, with quarterback Westley Bryan running the ball in for a touchdown to shorten the lead to 14-6.

Then St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse came alive.

Eagles quarterback Matthew DeFord gave his team a two-possession lead, and they wouldn't stop scoring, going into halftime with a 36-6 lead.

Neither team threw the ball a lot during the game, electing to keep the ball on the ground almost exclusively after the first half.

"Going into the second half, we wanted to get rid of the clock," Hergert said. "That was another added bonus to running. Staying in bounds, get the clock off, get out of here and go home."

Tekoa-Rosalia made adjustments at halftime, opting to go with more inside runs instead of the typical outside read-option scheme that the team had run the previous weeks.

"Our line is big," Rogers said. "And we can run all day on them. We just made mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot. We drove up and down the field on them."

The results of the adjustment did show, and both defenses showed up as well, with both teams scoring a total of eight points each in the second half and lowering the total number of possessions in the second half.

Bryan accounted for the last score of the game for the Timberwolves, rushing for the touchdown in a goaline situation.

Bryan also had a second-half interception for the Timberwolves after the scoring drive to give the ball back before the drive stalled due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a fumble recovery by the Eagles.

St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse scored its only points of the second half with a "Philly Special" play, with Fleming throwing to DeFord for the touchdown.

The game was a strong showing for the Eagles, who are now ranked sixth in the state for 1B teams, according to Matt Evans' Evans Rankings.

St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse will have a chance to improve its ranking at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23, in Palouse against the Garfield-Palouse Vikings, who the team shut out 55-0 in Week 1.

For the Timberwolves, they will look to bounce back against undefeated Liberty Christian of Richland at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23, in Tekoa.

– Kowatsch can be reached at sports@wcgazette.com, by phone at 509-397-4333 EXT: 0004, by cell at 208-305-1814, or on Twitter @tkseahawk13.