Home? Road? A tossup in GNL

Home field advantage? It appears there is no such thing in Great Northern League football. Teams have gone 7-5 on the road in league and 5-7 at home, a veritable push.

“The league’s pretty good across the board,” Cheney coach Jason Williams said. “On a given week any team can win.”

His Blackhawks (4-2 overall and 2-1 in league) are a case in point. For the third Friday in row, the visitor prevailed in an important contest between contenders when they won 26-23 in overtime at Colville. The result is a four-team tie a game behind unbeaten leader Clarkston.

And the Bantams (3-3, 3-0) must be wary. They are home this week against Pullman (4-2, 2-1).

First Colville (4-2, 2-1) upset the Greyhounds on the Palouse. Then Pullman went on the road and thwacked the Blackhawks.

Proving nothing is for certain, Cheney flummoxed the Indians in Colville, after blowing a 23-7 lead and with possession of the ball with seven minutes remaining. Colville twice scored and made 2-point conversions to force the overtime.

“We had missed an extra point and when they came charging back the first thing that came into my head was that point would cause us grief,” Williams said. “But we got to play in an overtime game and you can’t simulate that in practice.”

The players also learned that you can’t take anything for granted in the GNL.

Still, how do you explain Colville’s 21-20 victory at Pullman, Pullman’s 45-13 waltz at Cheney – “They kind of lined up and smashed us,” Williams said – and then Cheney’s three-point win in Colville?

“If there were a magical pill, I’d tell you,” Williams said. “It’s basically getting up and playing. The kids kind of responded.”

Gone at Cheney is the old Wing T look so familiar over the years. In is the spread look out of a shotgun formation that Williams and his staff gleaned from time spent learning the system at the Air Force Academy, and also modeling on Utah’s offense.

DeAngelo Jones at quarterback is the architect. Backs Diondre Moore-Young, a sophomore, and Michael Springer both run with and catch the ball, Williams said. And the defense has been solid.

But as previous scores indicate, home field is no panacea and the number of close scores are indicative of unpredictability in the GNL. The only loss by Deer Park (5-1, 2-1), on a Clarkston interception return, came at home, and the Stags won last Friday in overtime at West Valley (4-2, 1-2).

“There are not going to be any easy cakewalks,” Williams said. “We have Deer Park this week, Clarkston down there and West Valley. It doesn’t let up by any means.”

Kliewer commits

Lewis and Clark senior Sarah Kliewer will mix basketball and academics after announcing she will continue her career at the University of Portland in the West Coast Conference.

“Academically it’s really challenging, and that was a really big deal to me when looking at schools,” Kliewer said.

Also, she said, the coaches at Portland are similar in style to LC coach Jim Redmon, which made her feel comfortable.

Kliewer, a 6-foot-1 post/wing, averaged more than eight points per game for the state champions last year and expects to play similarly in college.

“She has such a great (outside) shooting touch,” Redmon said. “She’s kind of a guard in a post’s body. Her defense and aggressiveness has come along. In my opinion that is one of the main reasons we won the state championship game.”

Kliewer said she was a point guard as a youngster, but needs to work on her ball handling, though she will play inside.

No sure things

Greater Spokane League football begins a three-week stretch of the season that will determine its two 4A playoff entrants, and even that might not be enough.

It begins with Mead against Gonzaga Prep at Albi Stadium on Thursday and unbeatens Ferris at Central Valley the next night.

But consider this: In the Columbia Basin Big Nine, even winning a division title is no guarantee the team will even reach the postseason.

Richland and Southridge have two-game leads in their respective CBBN Cascade and Columbia divisions. The Bombers are 5-1 overall, 4-0 within the division, and the Suns are 6-0, 4-0 with two divisional games remaining.

But three weeks from now they will host two of four games featuring eight teams – the top four in each division – in cross-overs to decide which four join the GSL’s two in the regional playoffs.

Conceivably, a fourth-place finisher could advance and a divisional champion be left out.

Cross country showdown

This year’s GSL girls cross country favorites, Mead and Central Valley, meet Wednesday in the final meet for league teams. The Panthers (8-0) are assured no worse than a title tie with the Bears (6-1), who could earn a piece of their third straight championship with a victory at home.

•How good is North Central boys cross country?

During Saturday’s Richland Invitational, the Indians not only had four of the top six finishers and won the Division 1 title with 39 points to Henry Jackson’s 82, but also the team’s second eight runners placed in the top 35 and finished second, 61-65, to Hermiston in the Division 2 varsity race.