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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Central Valley hangs on for 20-19 win over Lewis and Clark

Central Valley had already agonized over one fourth-down Lewis and Clark play, so coach Rick Giampietri was prepared for anything when the next one came along.

The Bears caught the final break Friday when Adam Thompson’s 43-yard field-goal attempt with 39 seconds left hit low on the left upright, preserving host CV’s 20-19 win in a Greater Spokane League opener at Sig Hansen Field.

“I saw it hit the corner of the crossbar, so I knew it wasn’t any good, but it looked like it had a chance to go in,” Giampietri said after CV improved to 1-2 overall and dropped the Tigers to 0-3. “They’ve had some hard luck the last couple of years against us.”

“As soon as they kicked it, I thought it was going wide left and it bounced off the upright and we kind of got hyper,” said Bears sophomore running back Braedon Orrino, who rushed for 90 yards and touchdowns of 1, 1 and 15 yards. … “It means a lot. We were all depressed the last couple of weeks (losses of 50-14 to Coeur d’Alene and 57-21 to Lake City) and now we’ve fought back.”

LC was in position to steal the win despite the misfortune of losing senior running back Taylor Duncan during its final drive. Duncan, who punished the Bears for 235 yards on 31 carries, limped off with 4:40 left and the Tigers at their 33-yard line.

The Tigers moved inside CV territory on Jordan Summers’ 17-yard pass to Leo Haghighi before their drive sputtered. It appeared the Bears had stopped LC on Summers’ incomplete fourth-down pass with 2:22 left, but CV was whistled for pass interference, giving the Tigers first down on the CV 34.

LC faced a fourth-and-2 at the 26 when CV called timeout before the field-goal attempt.

“It was one of those games where it was kind of who’s going to wear down the least, and they had some bad breaks,” Giampietri said. “They gave up a fumble down in scoring territory earlier (with 8:14 left at the CV 22), so we got some good breaks, too.”

LC scored on its first two drives, on Summers’ 10-yard pass to Thompson with 6:51 left in the first quarter and Duncan’s 7-yard run less than 5 minutes later.

The Tigers missed on Thompson’s first extra-point attempt, allowing CV to head to halftime with a 14-13 lead after a pair of Orrino 1-yard runs.

Summers’ 9-yard TD pass to Duncan, after escaping a sack, put LC ahead 19-14 less than 4 minutes into the second half.

“Going into the locker room we were all pumped up, ready to go, and they came out the second half and scored on us,” Orrino said. “So we knew we had to fight back.”

Orrino rushed for 55 of his 90 yards on the go-ahead drive, capped by a 15-yard TD with 55 seconds left in the third quarter.