CV Defense Erases No. 1 Opportunistic Bears Shut Down Huard, Puyallup For 10-0 Victory And Berth In 4a Title Game

Central Valley cornered the market on defense Saturday night.

With cornerbacks Nate McFarlane and Zac Scott blanketing the receivers and the front seven roosting in the Puyallup backfield, the sixth-ranked Bears stuffed the top-ranked Vikings 10-0 in the State 4A football semifinals before 4,752 fans at Albi Stadium.

“Those two corners were amazing,” Central Valley coach Rick Giampietri said. “They just had a great game.”

McFarlane intercepted a pass, just the fourth pickoff thrown by Luke Huard this year against 39 touchdowns, and Scott ended the Vikings’ last threat with a fumble recovery.

“Our team this year has risen to the occasion a lot, but tonight that team was too good,” said Huard, who finished the year with 2,635 yards passing, just 137 against CV on a 15-for-29 night. “I’ve been watching that team on tape a lot. I thought we would be able to pick on the corners all day long, but I’ll tell you what, those guys did something because they played a whale of a game.”

Central Valley (12-1) now plays No. 2 South Kitsap (13-0) at 7:30 Saturday night in the Tacoma Dome.

The game was a defensive struggle from the beginning with the biggest play a defensive touchdown.

After the Bears turned a short Puyallup punt into a 35-yard Greg Papich field goal with 4:42 left in the first half, there were back-to-back big plays. Huard hit Jesse Looker over the middle and he broke a tackle at midfield to go 46 yards to the CV 24. On the next play, Jeremy Swann pushed into the middle of the line, fumbled the ball back and CV linebacker Garret Graham scooped it up at the 24. Graham veered to the right sideline and raced untouched 76 yards to score.

“Our defensive line was amazing, absolutely amazing,” Graham said. “That play was all on the defensive line. I was just in the right place at the right time. This is a dream come true. Oh, it’s so hard to describe.” For the second straight game, CV held an opponent to negative yards on the ground, the Vikings ending up 21 in the hole. Marc Hinkley had 2-1/2 of CV’s five sacks.

“Our defensive backs stepped it up today,” said defensive tackle Wil Beck, who also had a sack. “That’s the best I’ve ever seen them play. We needed them to step up and they did.”

The momentum swung in CV’s favor on Puyallup’s first possession. After the Vikings punched out a first down on their 31, Huard scrambled 7 yards but was clobbered by Graham and came up limping.

“They came out with a great defensive game plan. I’ve got to give them credit,” Huard said. “I should have made some more plays but they were geared to stop us and that’s what they did.”

McFarlane said, “Every time he tried to go deep, our line got to him. I think (the receivers) were a little frustrated late and the quarterback didn’t want to run.”

Scott said a week of bump-and-run practice helped.

“We played man-to-man most of the night,” he said. “So much for 48.3 (Puyallup’s scoring average).”

CV linebacker Courtney Brown said, “It was all of the defense’s best game. The defensive backs had their best game all year and our defensive line was outrageously great.”

Although Puyallup’s defense was just as impressive as the Bears’, when CV had the ball it seemed the clock moved a lot faster. The Vikings had the ball only 8-1/2 minutes in the second half but, defensively, held CV to 151 yards.

“You can’t take anything away, their front seven just dominated,” Puyallup coach Mike Huard said. “Three turnovers. That touchdown was a killer. We couldn’t hold them out. Our guys fought but they were overpowered. We couldn’t take a seven-step drop and have time to throw the ball, and they did a good job on screens and draws.”

Central Valley is just the second Spokane team to make the championship game in the highest classification. Gonzaga Prep made it five times, the latest 10 years ago when the Bullpups lost to Puyallup. Prep won titles in 1982 and ‘86.

Central Valley 10, Puyallup 0

Puyallup 0 0 0 0 -0

Central Valley 0 10 0 0 -10

C-Papich 35 field goal C-Graham 76 fumble return (Papich kick) P C First downs 7 10 Rushes-yards 13-(-21) 42-98 Passing yards 150 53 Return yards 24 76 Passes 16-30-1 6-13-0 Punts-avg. 6-46 8-40.8 Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0 Penalties-yards 1-3 3-25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Central Valley: Clowe 24-51, Graham 5-30, Adamson 12-6, McFarlane 1-1. Puyallup: Swann 5-16, Elstrom 1-(minus-9), Huard 7-(minus-28).

PASSING - Central Valley: Adamson 6-13-0-53. Puyallup: Huard 15-29-1-137, Elstrom 1-1-0-13. RECEIVING - Central Valley: Graham 4-30, Papich 1-14, Hinckley 1-9. Puyallup: Looker 7-90, Elstrom 4-24, Henderson 2-18, McMillan 1-13, Swann 2-5.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)