Mt. Spokane defeats North Central 56-14

Mt. Spokane jumped all over North Central to start the game, and the Indians found themselves down 35-0 before they started to show some offensive spark.

The Wildcats (6-1, 1-0 GSL 3A) kept up the pressure in the second half and finished off an impressive 56-14 football win over the Indians (1-6, 0-1).

“I felt like we executed our game plan,” Mt. Spokane coach Terry Cloer said. “We wanted to play physical and get off to a fast start. We did that.”

The Wildcats marched down the field several times and got two short touchdowns by Dalton Dixon. But the play of the night came early in the third quarter just seconds after Dixon scored his second touchdown.

North Central quarterback Riley Smith tried a first-down pass that Dixon intercepted. He raced 33 yards the other way for his third touchdown to put the Wildcats up 49-7.

The Wildcats also got two dramatic touchdowns within a few minutes of each other from Jacob Barnes.

On the first score, Barnes received a North Central punt before he split defenders and raced 54-yards for a score.

Just 90 seconds later on the play clock, Mitch Speer found Barnes on a second-down pass. Barnes stiff-armed at least three players on a winding 62-yard catch-and-run to put the game out of reach at 35-0 with 10:40 remaining until halftime.

“He’s been doing that all year,” Cloer said of Barnes. “He’s a big, physical receiver. He’s a tough matchup for a lot of defensive backs in this league.”

Speer completed 15 of 21 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns.

The Indians finally got on the board when Riley Smith hit Christian Barnes for a 12-yard touchdown pass just before halftime to make it 35-7.

The Indians added a 1-yard touchdown by Khanian Charlton at the beginning of the fourth quarter to make it 49-14.

Mt. Spokane’s Steven Hansen ran it in from 1 yard out to complete the scoring at 56-14.