MEDICAL LAKE — All things being equal, both the Cardinals and the Newport Grizzlies (1-2,4-2) had an equal chance of winning Medical Lake’s Homecoming game on Friday, Oct. 11. But two game statistics stood out in the tale of the Cardinals 35-12 loss: rushing yards and interceptions.
The Cards got off to a good start from the opening kickoff in Northeast A League play when junior quarterback Ashton Hamilton-Becker — playing most of the game with a taped-up ankle after an injury late in the first quarter — connected with senior wide receiver Jordan Petersen on a 10-yard pass with a minute left in the first quarter for a six-point opening lead.
Then it became a defensive struggle for the rest of first half, with both teams holding the other scoreless going into the halftime break, with the Cardinals making excellent reads on the Grizzly offense.
Cardinal senior Jon Anderson intercepted a Grizzly pass with five minutes remaining in the second on the Grizzly five yard line, but Medical Lake couldn’t get the ball into the end zone. Then one minute later the Griz intercepted a Hamilton-Becker pass mid-field, but failed to put the ball between the uprights on a field goal attempt, leaving the score 6-0 going into halftime.
Then Medical Lake seemingly left their defensive game in the locker room. Coming back from halftime, the Grizzlies would go on to score 28 unanswered points in the third quarter — at least two touchdowns the result of Cardinal turnovers — and another seven points in the fourth.
The Cardinals were intercepted three times with one fumbled ball in the game, mistakes the Grizzlies capitalized on. And while Newport threw one interception and fumbled the ball five times, the Cards were unable to recover any of them during the game.
If the Cardinals defense remained anemic, the offense was unable to get past an aggressive Newport defense to score, even from the 20 yard line until they managed to score their second and final touchdown with six-seconds remaining in the fourth quarter the same way they started the game — on a Hamilton-Becker pass to Peterson.
While the two teams were nearly equal in passing yards, Newport managed 107 more rushing yards than Medical Lake.
Senior funning back Brandon Giles lead the Cards with 12 carries for 64 yards, followed by Nick Anderson Nick Anderson with two for 11 and sophomore Joe Griffey with two for one.
Hamilton-Becker, who was forced to scramble against the Griz defense all night, ended up with negative yardage, but still managed to go 15 for 25 and 150 yards in the air and two touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions. Backup sophomore quarterback Eugene Hass went 3 for 6 and 14 yards and one interception.
Peterson who went 67 yards on five carries and his two touchdowns led the Cardinal receiving crew. Senior Kolby Wren had three receptions for 36 yards, sophomore Joe Oliver was five for 23; Anderson was one for 16 plus the interception, while senior Kaleb Vinson was quiet Friday night, going three for 11. Griffey was one for 11.
With a 35-6 loss the Cardinals fell to 0-3 in the NEA and 0-5 overall, and have yet to win a game this season.
Medical Lake travels to Chattaroy to face the Riverside Rams (2-2,4-2) tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 14. Kick-off is 7 p.m.
Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].
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