Mead rivalry game a crowd-pleaser

For a first-night football game, the Mead-Mt. Spokane encounter had it all.

Both teams entered with high expectations for a game fueled by intense rivalry. It ended a nail-biter in front of a large and appreciative crowd.

The Panthers knocked down a pass with the Wildcats threatening to score at the end to preserve a 29-22 win. Brandon Lynch’s late 23-yard, fourth-quarter run broke a 22-22 tie, but though the final score held up, the game was far from over.

“We’ve been there for a lot of exciting games and that certainly was one of them,” said Mead coach Sean Carty. “It was probably one of the first times in a long time that both teams knew they were going to win.”

The game played to a large audience that reached 6,741 for Friday’s Albi Stadium doubleheader.

“There were long waiting lines and some didn’t get in until the second quarter,” said Greater Spokane League secretary Randy Ryan.

At least the first quarter was scoreless. Fireworks followed.

Mead linebacker Matt Lynch, in his first game as a defender, scooped up a fumbled ball on a play blown up by Darien Hatch, Carty said, and raced 59 yards to tie the game 7-7. Lynch was a game-time decision because of injury and was playing a new position.

“He hurt his foot the first day of hitting,” said Carty, who explained that Lynch originally was a corner in Mead’s new defense but was moved because Brendon Myers had been doing a good job as his replacement. “To have Matt scoop up the ball and score wouldn’t have been possible two days before.”

The tie was short-lived, however, when Wildcat Evan Poynor raced 100 yards with the ensuing kickoff. All-GSL receiver Ryane Laforte countered with a 70-yard catch for a TD before intermission.

Mt. Spokane trailed 16-14 when junior back Colton Williams, who had 104 yards rushing and 96 receiving, scored his second touchdown of the game, and with the two-point conversion it was 22-16.

Mead tied it before quarter’s end, missing the extra point, and took back the lead on its late fourth-quarter drive aided by another clutch Laforte reception, Carty said.

Bryce Peters intercepted a pass with less than two minutes left. Game over?

“Not so fast,” Carty said.

Three runs in Wildcats territory, on a night when Mead rushed for nearly 200 yards, netted little. A fourth-down pass was picked off by Mt. Spokane.

“They proceed to launch some bombs, No. 4 (Williams) goes crazy and they’re inside our 30 for one last pass with two seconds left, I think,” said Carty. “Luckily, they didn’t catch it.”

Carty said he was glad to have caught Mt. Spokane early.

“They’re so good, if we played them later in the year I don’t know if we could have handled them,” he said. “They are the real deal and made fewer mistakes than we did. They’re probably feeling they should have won it.”

Mead, however, is no stranger to harrowing outcomes. Last year it lost and won in overtime, rallied from two scores down in the fourth quarter to beat Gonzaga Prep by a point and survived a Kansas Tiebreaker over Central Valley to qualify for state.

Putting namesake to work

When an event is named after a legend, one doesn’t normally expect to see him being put to work.

But there was 77-year-old Tracy Walters barking instructions and giving race updates over a portable public address system during the Tracy Walters North Central Invitational cross country meet at Audubon Park.

“That’s what happens when you’re low-budget,” Walters quipped.

Walters is a familiar presence, still much involved in sports, though long-removed in his status as distance coaching pioneer. He’s been the voice at the finish of Bloomsday, an assistant track coach for his son Kelly at NC and, Saturday, was the official starter at a race named for him.

Defense wins in Cusick

New Cusick football coach Sonny Finley is barely a dozen years removed from his days there as a burly Panthers player. Friday, his debut at the helm produced a shockingly easy 34-6 win over last year’s State 1B runner-up, Odessa.

“To tell the honest truth,” said the man fulfilling a dream, “we knew it would be a hard-fought game. The difference in the score did surprise me a bit.”

Befitting of an all-league defensive lineman during his playing days, Finley said he had every confidence in his defense, which ultimately limited the Tigers to 11 rushing yards on 30 carries.

“Since I got the job in June we’ve been preparing for them,” said the 1996 Cusick graduate. “The key is our defensive tackles (Kevin Villegas and Joe Andrews) demand constant double teams, which frees up the linebackers.”

Cusick blitzed from everywhere making it difficult to know where the linebackers and defensive backs were coming from in its 3-3-2 lineup. Dustin Villegas and Spencer Shanholtzer had 18 and 16 tackles, respectively, Finley said.

They were also catalysts of an offense built on multiple sets accounting for more than 400 yards and all the scoring.

“Everybody followed the game plan as we drew it up,” Finley said. “It was awesome.”

Between the 20s

For 60 yards, from 20 yard line to 20 yard line at Albi Stadium, the Rogers Pirates took the measure of Central Valley in a game between teams with opposite football traditions.

Those final yards, however, proved difficult to come by.

“They kept the ball and ran more plays than we did,” said Bears coach Rick Giampietri. “They just couldn’t get over the goal line. You know it’s a different game when you give up 200 yards rushing and win by shutout.”

CV won 31-0, but Giampietri was impressed with Rogers’ elusiveness and athleticism. And one of the TDs came on a Rogers field goal attempt that came up short and was returned for a 99-yard touchdown.

“I’ve never seen that in high school,” Giampietri said.