By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
The thunder that rolled across the sky prior to the start of last Friday's season opening non-league football game between Medical Lake and Davenport produced some leftover lightning on the field in the form of Joe Wilson.
The senior running back collected four touchdowns, two of them electrifying long runs as his Cardinals routed the undermanned Gorillas 44-12 at Holliday Field in Medical Lake.
“Big players, big plays, a great team win,” Medical Lake head coach Rick Olson said. Olson has been trying to turn around the Cardinal program that has suffered through a combined 1-17 record over the past two seasons.
“When we exploded, we played like we practiced on Wednesday night under the lights,” Olson said. “It was a great practice. We executed, we did well.” And the Cards never suffered from any test anxiety over tackling the Gorilla's who are perennial playoff performers in the Northeast 2B League.
Davenport, which lists 33 players on its roster, was missing 14 of those due to violations of the school's athletic code.
Gorilla coach Harold Patterson said the suspended players were required to attend the game. “They were here tonight because they had to be,” Patterson said. “They have to miss one more game (next week against Wellpinit),” the veteran coach said.
As if they were not shorthanded enough, Davenport lost two more players due to injury during the game.
Ty Truscott suffered what was reportedly a rib injury.
As a precaution, however, he was transported by ambulance to Sacred Heart hospital for further evaluation. Adam Kaiser had to be helped from the field with some type of knee injury.
“They played well tonight,” Patterson said of Medical Lake.
The Cards ground out a 16-play opening drive capped by Wilson's first touchdown. The 4-yard run up the middle came with 4:11 to play in the first quarter. “He's the real deal,” Olson said about Wilson. “He's very talented. I hope he can take on the leadership role.”
Davenport's first drive lasted just six plays. A bad snap from center on the punt was recovered by Shane Forrester on the Gorilla 20. On the first play of the second quarter Wilson made it 12-0 on a 14 yard run with 11:54 remaining in the half.
The Gorillas engineered their best – and longest – drive of the half and the game after Medical Lake's kick-off skittered out of bounds, giving the ball to the Gorilla's at their own 35.
A gutsy call on fourth and two from their own 45 saw quarterback Justin Wood run for six hard yards and a first down that kept the drive alive. Nine plays later Wood dug through a pile of players for a tough yard to cut the margin to 12-6.
Jeremy Martin's 20 yard kickoff return gave the Cardinals great field possession on their own 42 to start their next drive. Two plays later Wilson was off around the left side for 58 yards and a 20-6 lead. He capped the TD effort with a two-point conversion off the run.
A six-play Davenport drive was halted when Wilson swatted down Wood's pass attempt on fourth and three from the Medical Lake 38.
One play after making the defensive stop, Wilson completed his stellar half of work on offense. The senior back took a delayed handoff from quarterback Nick Pacheco, nearly mirroring his earlier long run. Only this time Wilson raced 63 yards for a 26-6 lead. Wilson also added the two-point conversion. On the night, Wilson carried 13 times for 183 net yards.
As time ran out, Davenport's final drive of the half ended on the Medical Lake 20. The Gorillas were stifled once again in their opening drive of the second half going three and out resulting in the first punt of the night with 9:43 remaining in the third.
Defense highlighted the third quarter as Davenport twice had short drives end in punts, and another by a Jason Hayes interception. Medical Lake saw a pair of turnovers keep them off the scoreboard. A fumble recovery by the Gorillas' Ron Wilkie stopped one drive.
“We had a couple of bobbles, but we've got just so much inexperience,” Olson said.
With just 38 seconds to play in the third quarter a fumble by ML's Wilson on the eight lead to Davenport's second TD. Following the recovery by the Gorillas' Alex Zeiler on the one, Wood scored his second to cut the margin to 28-12.
Tyler Lemaster's brilliant 40-yard kickoff return gave the Cardinals excellent field position on the Davenport 35 to begin the fourth quarter. Five plays later Forrester took it in from the 20 with just 37 seconds gone in the period. Pecheco then found Forrester again for the 2-point conversion and a 36-12 lead.
Davenport's next drive ended when they turned the ball over on downs after a seven play drive. Medical Lake's next possession lasted only one play when they lost the handle on the ball, turning it over on the 48.
Wilkie took off on a 43 yard run to the Cardinal five. But two consecutive defensive plays by Medical Lake – one a sack of Davenport QB Justin Wood by Kevin Ramson and 10-yard loss – set up a desperate fourth and 10 situation where Wood's pass fell incomplete. Medical Lake took over on their own 15.
On the first play from scrimmage junior wideout Chris Penny took a hand-off from Pacheco, avoided a tackle and bolted 85 yards almost untouched down the right side for a 42-12 lead with 4:10 to play. Pacheco's pass to Hayes on the PAT concluded scoring.
“We have a couple of kids who absolutely committed themselves to the summer program and he's (Chris Penny) one of them,” Olson said.
Olson saw a much tighter outcome had Davenport been at full strength. Olson predicted, “We're playing to the last minute,” had those players been in the line-up.
“We've got some talent,” Olson said. “We've got some skill kids. We've just got to get everybody else up to par.”
The Cardinals played most of the game without one of their defensive standouts. That forced Olson to make some adjustments.
“We lost Jordan Mueller right there at the beginning,” Olson said. “That really hurt our depth at MIKE linebacker. We had to move Cody Carr to MIKE linebacker,” the coach added. Corey Ward then had to move to center.
Mueller dislocated his shoulder and will not see further action until the Cardinal's league opener against Colville on Sept. 21.
Looking ahead to their rematch with Columbia of White salmon, Olson suggests the Bruins, “are well coached team and physical. They're what Davenport would have been.”
The Cards take on a White salmon team that was humbled 48-7 by Goldendale in their home opener and try to avenge last year's 20-14 loss at Medical Lake.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
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