Thunderous start

Thunder and lightning couldn’t spoil the Rogers football coaching debut of Matt Miethe, but host East Valley did, winning 40-27 in the Greater Spokane League opener for both in a ragged, if entertaining football game.

After the Knights broke a late first-quarter 6-6 tie and built a two-touchdown lead, the game Pirates battled back. It wasn’t until quarterback Lonnie Quirk’s 33-yard touchdown pass to 6-foot-5 first-year wide receiver Danny Marshall, for a 40-20 advantage with 3:45 remaining in the game, that EV’s victory was secure.

“They did a great job of competing,” said Knights coach Adam Fisher. “Andrew Durant at quarterback will present problems for anybody and we knew that.”

Durant threw for 213 yards, mainly to favorite target and sure-handed receiver Jacob Partridge, and two touchdowns and ran for another out of Rogers’ wide-open Gun-Option offense.

But his counterpart, Quirk, was even more effective, with an efficient 13-for-17 night for 186 yards and three scores, two to Marshall.

“I was very pleased with Lonnie’s play,” said Fisher. “He managed the game excellently.”

At several junctures, however, the Knights hurt themselves with a plethora of penalties and a couple of turnovers.

Credit the Pirates with taking advantage. They scored following an interception for the first-quarter tie and again following the second pick and cut the score to 20-13 with 49 seconds left until intermission.

The Knights responded 42 seconds later, Quirk twice hitting Chris Helms, the latter from 25 yards out to rebuild the two-touchdown advantage.

A bad punt snap gave Rogers field position in the third quarter and it scored again, on a 5-yard run by Marcus Babcock.

East Valley answered with the two scores that put the game away.

“I’d like to have won it,” a sweat-soaked Miethe said. “It came out a little bizarre with the weather and having to wait, but you know what? We went out and fought.”

The thunder began rolling as the national anthem was played, then came the lightning and an hour delay from the scheduled 7 p.m. start.

Quirk was 4 for 4 for 47 yards as the Knights covered 52 yards in five plays for the game’s initial score.

A muffed punt and Pirate Travis Erickson’s fumble recovery set up a 28-yard pass by Durant for the tie. EV came right back, Quirk’s 26-yard completion to Jakob Pugsley the big play as the Knights took the lead for good. It was 20-6 midway through the second period on Nick Bellomy’s second 12-yard run of an eight-play march.

The Pirates lost one scoring opportunity when Partridge fumbled on a 39-yard pass play, but made good not long thereafter following Kyle Erdman’s second interception of the half. Durant ran that in.

But EV went back up 27-13 with seven seconds left.

The teams traded scores in the third quarter, but the game turned EV’s way when Durant’s 11-yard scamper near the midpoint of the fourth quarter fell a yard short at the Knight 26.

It took the home team just six plays to cover 74 yards, nearly half of it on the Quirk-to-Marshall TD.

Rogers’ final touchdown came with 1:19 left to play on Durant’s 4-yard pass to Cody Peterson.

“Last year we were behind 43-7 at halftime (against EV),” said Miethe. “We wanted to be competitive and did. I think it got away from us a little in the fourth quarter a little bit, but we never stopped.”

Ferris 42, North Central 0: There was no suspense in this year’s meeting between the two teams as Shawn Stockton caught five passes for 133 yards and scored three times. The Saxons were ahead 28-0 by intermission and limited the Indians to 58 yards of offense.

Jeff Minnerly was 10 for 14 for 178 yards, passing twice to Stockton for scores and running one in from 33 yards.

Ferris finished with 427 yards of offense, even without All-GSL wide receiver Jared Karstetter who is nursing an injury.

Mead 52, Shadle Park 6: The final score of their game was nearly identical to a season ago, although this times quarterback Glen Reser threw five touchdown passes.

He hit tight end Dan Spitz three times for scores and also found Todd Loncosty and Ryane LaForte for short-yardage TDs.

Much of Mead’s offense came on the ground. James Allen carried 14 times for 85 yards and the Panthers finished with 275.