By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
No matter how jacked up the Medical Lake football team was before their Great Northern League opener against Colville last Friday night, their emotional high could not overcome the back-breaking plays that would doom the Cardinals in a 48-15 loss.
A slew of big plays – a 64-yard punt return and 98 yard pass and run among them – would break the spirit the “get-r-done” chant tried to instill in the pre-game warm-ups. The win helped keep the Indians a perfect 4-0 while Medical Lake evened its record at 2-2.
“Physically, they came off the ball, we didn't,” Medical Lake coach Rick Olson said. “(And once again) the big plays killed us.”
If there was a true telling moment early, it might have come on the Cardinals' first series that started on the 8-yard line. Two runs and a penalty generated a negative 7 yards pushing Medical Lake to within inches of a safety.
Nick Pacheco got 13 of it back but ML still had to punt and Colville's Kjell Perry promptly returned the ball 64 yards for a touchdown and eventual 7-0 Indian lead. “That first punt return was like déjà vu. They did it last year; took the first punt back,” Olson said.
ML went four and out on it's second drive before punting and giving the ball to the Indians at midfield. It took just seven plays – the biggest a 22-yard run by Casey Cox – to take a 13-0 lead with 4:55 to play in the first.
Joe Wilson's 23-yard kickoff return gave the Cardinals their best start of the night. A nine-play drive, featuring a 28-yard pass play from Pacheco to Akira Payton took Medical Lake down to the 2. The Cards drove to the 1 and opted to take a gamble on fourth down. That's where Colville's Brian Adams stuck Pacheco for a yard loss. That gave the ball back to the Indians on the 2.
One play later, Colville quarterback Marc Smith found Zak Pete had slipped past the secondary, flipped a short pass over the defenders and Pete was off on a 97-yard foot race to give the Indians a 20-0 lead.
“Our kids did a great job of playing tough ‘D' inside the 5” Colville head coach Randy Cornwell said. “We saw early on that we could get away with a little pop-pass over the middle. It could have been 14-7 but instead it's 20-0.”
“They haven't in the past thrown the ball well,” Olson said. “That was a big surprise.”
Smith was a perfect in three passing attempts for 169 yards.
If there was one area that the Cardinals did shine early, it was on kick returns. Ryan Musser took the ensuing kick-off back 28 yards, and coupled with a personal foul penalty, Medical Lake had the ball on the Colville 39.
Two plays later Sean Musser took a Pacheco pass 37 yards on the first play of the second quarter to put the Cardinals on the board at 20-7.
Medical Lake's kickoff sailed out of bounds, giving Colville the ball on the 35. Four plays later Pete once again got behind the coverage where Smith found him across the middle.
The senior tight end out-sprinted ML's defense in a race to the goal line to put Colville ahead 27-7 with 10:04 to play in the half.
Wilson's 28 yard kick-off return once again put his team in decent field position, however, his fumble on the next play gave the ball right back to Colville.
With Cox and Tristen Fox splitting toting the ball, the Indians drove to the Cardinal 20. An illegal block, however, moved the Indians back into a third and 20 at the 35.
Smith avoided a sack, rolled out to the left and found Brock Dotts for 33 yards. One play later Cox smashed up the middle with 6:22 left in the half to put Colville up 34-7 as Jordan Anderson connected on his fourth or five PATs.
A four-play Medical Lake possession ended in a punt sailing out of bounds at the Indian 47. From there Colville stayed on the ground for a six-play drive, culminated by John Fowler's four-yard keeper with 1:38 left that pushed the lead to 41-7 as the half ended.
Ryan Musser tried to put a little spark into his team before the half with a 55-yard kick-off return that got the Cards down the Colville 28. Time ran out before Medical Lake could move beyond the 20.
The second half was a relative snoozer compared to the high-scoring first 24 minutes. With their lead more than safe, Colville began substituting freely and the scoring pace slowed.
Colville did hold a possession advantage in the third quarter, running 16 plays to Medical Lake's seven.
One Cardinal drive was stopped after just three plays when Jade Dorman intercepted the half-back pass from Sean Musser on the Indian 16.
That lead to Colville's last TD, a 12-play drive -- all on the ground -- with Deets carrying the last 16 yards with 2:08 to play in the third.
Medical Lake would get the ball back for an 11-play drive that would result in their second touchdown. The Cardinals kept the ball on the ground virtually all the way, except when Pacheco injected a bit of trickery on a second and four run. The Card QB took the ball from the 12 and got to the 5 before a shovel pass to Wilson that got one additional yard.
Wilson then carried over from the four and added the 2-point conversion on a pass from Pacheco to conclude scoring.
One more Colville drive would end in a turnover when Zephrey Klem recovered a fumble, stopping the Indians at the cardinal 38.
Before the game, Olson said Colville would present almost an exact copy of White salmon, a team the Cards lost to in week two. However, he re-evaluated his impression saying, “they're better.
They were gracious the second half and pulled most of their starters.”
On the night, Colville out-gained Medical Lake 467 to 241, with 298 coming on the ground. Cox and Dotts each ran for 57 yards. The Card's Wilson was limited to 56 yards. Payton caught three balls for 75 yards.
Upcoming for the Cardinals is another big task when they travel to Pullman Friday to face another undefeated team in the Greyhounds.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
Colville 20 21 7 0 – 48
Med. Lk. 0 7 8 0 – 67
Scoring: Musser 37 pass from Pacheco (Linafelter kick), Wilson 4 run (Wilson pass from Pacheco). Rushing: Wilson 11-56, Forrester 3-24. Passing: Pacheco 3-8-100, Hill 1-2-50. Receiving: Payton 3-75.
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