Efficient Tigers end Hounds’ year

Burlington-Edison didn’t make a lot of big plays, but the Tigers also didn’t make many mistakes.

Pullman wasn’t as fortunate.

In a tight State 2A quarterfinal football game Saturday afternoon at Gonzaga Prep, the Greyhounds had too many miscues and for a second straight year their season ended with a playoff loss to Burlington-Edison.

This time the score was 14-7, the difference being a 78-yard touchdown on a pass from Dylan Boe to Troy O’Neill with just less than 10 minutes to play.

That earned the Tigers (11-1) a date next week with Prosser (12-0), the team that smoked them in the title game last year.

“We knew we had to play mistake-free football and we didn’t,” Pullman coach Bill Peterson said. “We knew they were good. That league is tough – they have two teams still playing. You have to bring you’re ‘A’ game. They’re our measuring stick and we’re close. We just have to find a way to tame the Tigers.”

Only twice did B-E put together three first downs in one series. The Tigers did it early, getting three straight on their second possession, only to stall out on the Pullman 18.

The second time was their second possession of the third quarter, when they marched 46 yards, capped by Stetson Shearer’s 3-yard scamper around left end.

When the low snap for the extra points went through the holder’s hands, Pullman (9-3) maintained a 7-6 lead.

Although the high-powered offense struggled to sustain momentum, the Tigers remained calm.

“We weren’t nervous,” defensive hero Cole Sager said. “This team has so much determination. We have some unfinished business. We finished second in the state last year. That’s not going to happen again.

“We knew if Troy O’Neill wouldn’t have caught that ball, we would have found a way.”

But Boe laid a perfect pass down the right sideline. Just as the ball was dropping into O’Neill’s hands at the Pullman 40, Greyhounds cornerback Lance Keithly stumbled and fell.

Then Boe and O’Neill hooked up on the two-point conversion.

The Greyhounds had gone on top 7-0 with a nine-play, 82-yard drive. It started with quarterback Cody Weber’s 46-yard run on a keeper around left end and ended with Keithly’s 5-yard run early in the second quarter.

Between the first touchdown and last touchdown the Greyhounds were poised to put the game away.

On the possession after their touchdown, the Greyhounds ran the ball 10 straight times to move from their 8 to a third-and-goal on the B-E 6. An illegal motion penalty pushed them back to the 11, and on the next play Sager intercepted Weber at the goal line.

Pullman was stopped short on a fake punt near midfield on its first possession of the third quarter, setting up the Tigers’ TD drive.

The Greyhounds responded to that with a couple of first downs before another penalty on fourth-and-1 at the B-E 31 stopped them.

After B-E went ahead, the Greyhounds reached the Tigers’ 20 before Weber was picked off by Sager.

Pullman’s last possession ended when a fourth-and-2 play came up short.

“In our two previous losses, that happened,” Peterson said of the Greyhounds’ inability to finish. “Those two penalties (were big). Our offense is designed for 3.5 (yards a play), not 9.5.”

The Tigers only had 176 yards rushing and completed just one other pass for 6 yards.

“Defense wasn’t the problem,” Peterson said. “Our offense made too many mistakes.”