St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse stood strong in first half

ST. JOHN — In the first football game of the season, the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles battled strong in the first half, but ultimately fell to the Soap Lake Eagles, 60-18, on Friday, Sept. 6.

The SJEL Eagles are a very young team with one senior and several freshman playing varsity on it’s roster of 14 players.

“We’re a really young team and in a rebuilding season,” SJEL Assistant Coach Josh Chastin said. “But, the fact that no one in the crowd left and was in it with no murmuring or bummer, we’re pumped for that. We are playing almost every freshman we got.”

The Eagles traded touchdowns to open the game, with Soap Lake striking first. Junior tight end Logan Northup scored on a 33-yard touchdown run. The PAT run was good and Soap Lake took an 8-0 lead.

SJEL answered with a 54-yard touchdown run by junior Brody Flemming, but the PAT run failed and Soap Lake still led, 8-6.

The visiting Eagles then sent powerhouse sophomore running back Terrance Panduro to work. He punched in a 3-yard touchdown run, the first of four TDs he would have in the game, to extend Soap Lake’s lead.

The hometown Eagles would not give up and scored an 8-yard touchdown run by Flemming to close the gap.

“I am so very proud of these young men who went to war today and battled it out,” Chastin said. “There are about 20 boys between the three schools who did not turn out to play, and these young men came out and fought and gave it their all.”

With five minutes left in the first quarter, Soap Lake scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Jairo Lopez to senior wide receiver Kyle Ayers. On the opening play of the second quarter, Panduro struck again on a 9-yard touchdown run for Soap Lake. Halfway through the quarter, Panduro got his third touchdown of the half on another punch-in from 2-yards out.

With less than one minute to go, Soap Lake scored its final touchdown of the half. With one second remaining, in the half, SJEL sophomore Dan McGuire caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from freshman QB Dan McGuire, but the score was brought back due to a penalty. The young quarterback drove the ball to the 5-yard line as time expired on the play, but could not muster a touchdown.

At halftime, Soap Lake led 46-12.

“We stuck together,” Chastin said. “When we got to that locker room (at halftime) we said, ‘you boys are not out of this game,’ and everyone’s eyes were up and listening to us. We still have that fight in us.”

Soap Lake would go on to score twice in the third quarter, instigating the mercy rule and make it a running clock.

Not going down without a fight, SJEL scored on the opening play of the fourth quarter on a 70-yard touchdown from sophomore wide receiver Chase Harder. That would be the final score of the game and Soap Lake won, 60-18.

Coach Chastin said that he sees the foundation of a great team as the season progresses, and in the future. There is one senior and three juniors on an 8-man football team, so the young players will see plenty of varsity time this season.

“These boys are going to be our leading crew,” Chastin said. “The sophomores and freshmen, so we’re looking forward to that. We’re going back to the basics, the fundamentals.”

The SJEL Eagles will next play Wilbur-Creston-Keller at 7 p.m. today, Thursday, Sept. 12. Coach Chastin said the program will continue to get better and the support of the community is fundamental to the team.

“I really see the foundation to a really good football program here,” Chastin said. “As long as the families stay behind it and keep cheering on these boys, they’re going to see lots of growth and lots of success.”