Youth factored in last week's West Valley football win over Colville.
Coach Steve Kent hopes it doesn't play a part in the Eagles' game Friday with Clarkston.
"They were a little bit younger than we were, let's put it that way," said Kent of his team's 38-28 victory over Colville. "Clarkston has a little older team than we do. It's always a disadvantage being young."
Clarkston's senior-oriented line and backs will test the junior-dominated Eagles in the game, which begins at 7 p.m. at WV.
It is the first Frontier League game of the 1997 season.
Clarkston runs the wing T offense, which the Eagles will face in varying forms in all six of its Frontier games.
"It's not the same as East Valley's, but the linebacker reads are fairly close to the same," said Kent.
WV runs the option-oriented wishbone offense and last week it led to 19 first-quarter points and ultimately a 25-0 lead over Colville.
Chris Hilsabeck raced 64 yards for the first touchdown and finished with 105 yards on eight carries.
Lee Rottweiler added a 27-yard score and quarterback Nick Brumback scored two more.
"We ran the option pretty well," said Kent. "Nick made some decent reads. He did a good job of getting it in there."
It also marked the line debut of Ryan Spivey, a 215-pound fullback-linebacker who volunteered to play guard.
"He never played the spot before and played the whole game," said Kent. "He's going to help us a lot. I appreciate his willingness to move and do whatever it takes to help the team be successful."
U-Hi, CV look for wins
University faces an important Friday night football game against Ferris at Albi Stadium.
The Titans last week fell to 1-1, losing 21-6 to Lewis and Clark.
U-Hi gave up 21 first-half points and failed on two scoring opportunities inside the Tiger 20 in the second.
"We had some breakdowns," said Mike Ganey. "But like I said earlier, if we can win three of our first four games we'll be in good shape.
Central Valley, coming off a 56-7 rout of Shadle Park, looks for its third win against a Rogers team averaging nearly 34 points per game.
Dominance evident at Highlander
East Valley's girls and University's boys cross country teams did nothing last weekend to discount high state rankings.
The Titan boys won all four races, senior through freshman, and the Knights won the girls race during at the Highlander Invitational.
"I think this is the first time any team swept all four boys races," said U-Hi coach Bob Barbero.
Top four scorers in each class determine the team champion.
Seth Mott won the senior race and Dan Chavez was fifth. Kris Martin, Mike Visintainer and Mark Davis finished fifth through seventh in the junior race.
Trevor Newton placed fourth in the sophomore race. Brandon Stum and Ryan Lancaster were second and seventh in the freshman race.
"The kids ran well," said Barbero.
Indeed, 23 of 29 Titan runners showed improvement, in some cases dramatic, over last year's times.
Biggest improvements by the 16 scorers were a 1 minute, 31 second drop by sophomore Mike Hawkins, 46 seconds by Chavez and Visintainer and 40 seconds by Martin. All finished 19th or higher in their respective races.
East Valley's 3A girls beat 4A teams from the Big Nine and Greater Spokane League and easily handled highly rated 3A school Selah.
U-Hi's MIchelle Cesal and Jaime Miller finished sixth and seventh overall and the Titan girls junior varsity easily won its race.
Central Valley won the freshman girls race over U-Hi, led by third-place Aubre Debenham and fifth-place Audra Fredrickson.
A one-two finish by East Valley's Jim Marlow and Ryan Coordes enabled the Knights to defend their Seaport Invitational championship.
"The kids like the course, run well and usually have a good feeling about themselves," said Dave McCarty of his decision to forego the Highlander to run in Clarkston.
