Hounds leave Orting hurting
PULLMAN – All week long, Pullman’s football team stressed the importance of controlling the ball against a team that allowed less than seven points a game this season.
Then the Greyhounds went out and did a terrible job, but that’s only because they couldn’t stay out of the end zone.
Of Pullman’s first nine offensive plays, four went for touchdowns as the second-ranked Greyhounds (12-0) blew out fifth-ranked Orting (11-1) 40-7 in a State 2A quarterfinal at Martin Stadium.
Pullman needed only one play to score the first touchdown, as J.T. Levenseller’s play-action fake sprung Ashton Gant on a post for a 64-yard score.
“The first play we actually ran from scrimmage, our plan was to go at (Joe) Halahuni and (B.J.) Garcia,” Greyhounds head coach Bob Wollan said, referring to the Cardinals’ two big safeties. “They’re just such aggressive run-stop guys, and we wanted to cool them down to let them know we were going over the top and we hit it.”
After kicking off to Orting, Pullman’s defense asserted itself.
On the Cardinals’ fourth play from scrimmage, Orting ran the option out of the shotgun and quarterback Justin Hill pitched to Halahuni, the do-everything, Oregon State-bound receiver.
J.C. Sherritt was right there, colliding violently with Halahuni and knocking him out of the game.
Halahuni returned to make one more catch but didn’t play any more defense and didn’t appear in the second half.
“I saw it developing as a play and I knew it was going to be a big collision,” Sherritt said. “I don’t really know who got the better of it because my head was rocking after that, too. Big hits are contagious, and it’s really good to get them for the team.”
Orting punted a few plays later, and on the third play of the Greyhounds’ second possession, Sherritt took a pitch left, picked up a block from Gant on the outside and went 54 yards to the Cardinals 9-yard-line.
Two plays later, Mike Thomas scored from 2 yards out for a 14-0 lead.
After the Cardinals went three-and-out, Pullman went to Thomas on its second play of the series, and the big fullback broke three tackles on the way to a 56-yard touchdown.
An Orting drive ended in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hill to Rick Friend, and then Pullman needed one play to answer.
Sherritt took a simple power play to the right side 75 yards for a touchdown and a 28-7 lead.
“I was really surprised. (Orting) hasn’t given up anything,” Wollan said. “We had some tendencies on what we thought they would do defensively, and we hit about three of them and got three good plays and gave us good scoring opportunities.”
An 11-yard pass from Levenseller to Thomas capped the first-half scoring, sending the Greyhounds into the locker room up 34-7.
Statistically, Pullman’s first half was satisfying.
The Greyhounds ran 20 first-half plays and gained 346 yards (17.3 yards per play), including 234 yards on the ground.
Sherritt finished with eight carries for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Levenseller was 5 of 9 passing for 112 yards and two scores.
“We set ourselves up to do exactly that all week at practice,” Pullman lineman Steve Ross said. “The same thing was going on there, so we just carried it on through the game.”
Orting’s spread offense was rendered punchless, gaining only 223 total yards, and 150 through the air on 35 pass attempts. Pullman picked off a pair of passes, one by Levenseller and one by outside linebacker Ian McLean.
The Greyhounds move on to the semifinals, matched up at 4 p.m. Saturday in Pasco against Connell (12-0), which knocked them out of the state tournament in the first round last year.
“They ended our season really early last year,” Sherritt said. “I’ve been really looking forward to it since we lost last year, so I’m really glad we get to play them in the semis.”