Lake City has its way with CV

Garren Hammons isn’t walking through the Great Wall of China, nor is he going to make the Statue of Liberty vanish into air.

What Lake City’s magician of a quarterback can do, however, is use his arm and legs to make points appear on the scoreboard at a mind-boggling rate.

Hammons ran for three touchdowns and threw for another, and the unbeaten Timberwolves befuddled Central Valley with misdirection Friday night in a 55-14 victory over the host Bears in a non-league football game.

The Timberwolves led by 34 points in the first half and improved to 6-0. CV dropped to 2-4 with its second consecutive loss.

Operating within coach Van Troxel’s option offense, there were times Hammons appeared to be toying with the Bears. More than once he rolled out of the pocket and looked like he was going to run upfield. Rather than trying to weave his way through several defenders, Hammons instead pulled up and heaved long passes over them for big plays.

But that’s not to conceal that Hammons enjoyed rampant success when he did scramble, as evidenced by his 136 yards on 13 carries. Nine of his rushes resulted in first downs.

His 13-yard run gave Lake City a 7-0 lead 2 minutes into the game, and a nifty sprint up the middle resulted in a 19-yard touchdown run that extended Lake City’s lead to 34-0 with 4:19 left in the second quarter. An 8-yard romp resulted in his third touchdown, giving the Timberwolves a 48-point advantage.

“We won our last game against Coeur d’Alene, but we didn’t play well as a team,” said Hammons, who completed 7 of 11 passes for 125 yards. “Troxel got on us pretty hard. He wanted us to come together, and we just stressed playing together as a team.”

B.J. Palmer squeaked into the end zone on a 4-yard run to extend the Timberwolves’ lead to 14-0. Hammons then hooked up with receiver Kyle Johnson on a 38-yard touchdown strike to increase the lead to three touchdowns in the first quarter.

Seth Sanders added a 5-yard touchdown run for a 27-0 cushion with 51/2 minutes remaining in the half. Chris Bobbitt recovered a blocked punt in the end zone 96 seconds into the second half to put Lake City ahead 41-0, and Zach Clanton added a 1-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring.

While Hammons was powering the Timberwolves on offense, Lake City’s defensive players collectively squelched CV’s efforts to move the ball.

The Bears entered the contest ranked fourth in the Greater Spokane League in total offense with 303 yards per game. They found no success against Lake City, finishing the first quarter with minus-9 yards and the first half with 13.

CV running back Shon Davis and quarterback Luke Clift were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the GSL in individual total offense before Friday night. Both were rendered ineffective, however, once Lake City’s lead reached the point where the Bears’ only hope of a comeback was through the air.

Davis was fourth in the GSL in rushing (471 yards) and averaged nearly 8 yards per carry through five games.

He had five carries for 2 yards in the first half against Lake City, although he did score on a 5-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Clift was intercepted twice in the first half and completed 3 of 6 passes for 5 yards before sophomore Blake Bledsoe took over in the second quarter. Bledsoe threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Cochran to end Lake City’s shutout bid with 10 minutes left in the game.