By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
The football competition seems to be getting tougher, yet the Medical Lake Cardinals have shown they can hold their own.
Their losing streak now dates back to the beginning of the 2016 season and sits at 20 games following a 27-7 nonleague loss at defending Caribou Trail champion Okanogan last Friday.
But consider that the Cardinals (0-2) played the Bulldogs (2-0) nose-to-nose into the fourth quarter until they “shot themselves in the foot” with penalties, according to head coach Jeremy Bahr.
“That’s two weeks in a row, two playoff caliber teams,” Bahr said, referring also to his team’s opener against St. Maries on Aug. 31.
Okanogan led the game just 14-7 heading into the final quarter. After a Medical Lake drive stalled on about the home team’s 35, the back-to-back state 2B champions from 2014 and 2015, who moved up a class, scored twice in under two minutes to put the games away.
“We played toe-to-toe with them for a little over three quarters,” Bahr said. The game changed on a pair of penalty calls, the first an offsides and the next an unsportsmanlike.
Okanogan’s Juilen Cates scored his second touchdown of the game on an 11-yard run with 6 minutes, 14 seconds remaining. Then, following a Medical Lake three-and-out, Josue Ramos took it 31 yards for a score at the 4:47 mark.
“We defended them well, our scout was great, the kids are executing,” Bahr said. “But we’re still learning how to win.”
The game was delayed just short of an hour due to lightning, but that was not the worst of it. Starting tight end James Pivonka was lost on the kickoff with a separated shoulder.
In week one, the Cardinals had their passing game rolling and the run game was stifled. Against St. Maries in a 42-20 loss, quarterback Aiden Lyerla was 9 of 20 with an interception, connecting for 165 yards. Running the ball netted them just two yards.
At Okanogan it was just the opposite, where Medical Lake had 129 yards on the ground on 28 carries, including 101 and a touchdown by Urijah Taylor. “He broke one off, a nice 40 or 50-yard run, and we didn’t even block it right, but we just got guys to the spots they needed to be in,” Bahr said.
Lyerla, meanwhile, struggled, going 4 for 9 with just 46 yards and a pair of interceptions. “He’s gotta’ get the ball out of his hand, he likes to hang on and doing the Russell Wilson spin move to try and create (opportunities),” Bahr said.
The Cardinals stay on the road and open Northeast A League play at Lakeside (0-2) this Friday at 7 p.m. The Eagles have lost a pair of high-scoring nonleague contests, 41-23 to 2A Pullman and 1A Omak, 35-33.
“We’re going to keep working, it’s a tough one with Lakeside this week,” Bahr said. “I don’t think there’s a cupcake game out there.”
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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