Colville responds to deficit, tops Deer Park

After falling behind for the first time this year, Colville exploded for 20 points in the third quarter Friday night to defeat a scrappy Deer Park team 32-14.

Deer Park started the game with stingy defense and won the special-teams battle to help take a 7-6 lead in the second quarter on its home field. But Colville (8-0, 6-0) responded in the second half to put the game away.

“That was tough,” Colville coach Randy Cornwell said. “If there is any silver lining, we faced adversity, got behind for the first time all year and we had to buckle down and grind one out.”

Cornwell said his team hadn’t even had a practice where it played as poorly as it did in the first half against Deer Park (4-4, 4-2).

“We’ll learn from this,” Cornwell said. “We faced a team that was determined to beat us and we had a big third quarter.”

Running back Journy Young put Colville on the board first with a 37-yard scamper to make it 6-0 with 1:05 left in the first quarter.

Deer Park’s Quinton Fletcher ran the kickoff back 50 yards to set up the Stags. Then facing fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, quarterback Nic Clough forced his way in to make it 7-6 Deer Park.

The ensuing knuckleball kickoff caromed off the leg of a Colville player and was recovered by Deer Park on the Colville 49. But the Indians forced a punt.

Special teams helped Deer Park again as a blocked punt gave the Stags the ball at the Colville 12-yard-line. But Colville’s Tyler Ward intercepted Clough on fourth down, giving the ball back to the Indians inside the 5-yard line.

Two plays later, Colville’s Colton Vining ran through the middle, shrugged off a couple of tacklers and rambled 93 yards to make the score 12-7 just before the half.

“One kid had a hold of me and Jacob Morris took him off of me, then after that it was off to the races,” Vining said.

A sharper Indians team took the field in the third quarter. After forcing a Deer Park punt, Young capped a Colville drive with a 12-yard score to make it 18-7.

“We came out on a different level than we did to start the game,” Young said.

Colville quarterback Ben Knight threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Morris and a 51-yard strike to Vining that made it 32-7 with 1:28 left in the third quarter.

Clough hit Joseph Pichinevskiy for a 6-yard touchdown pass to complete the scoring at 32-14.

“There is nothing better than a victory,” Colville’s Young said, “especially in a hard-fought battle that you get to play the whole game.”