Eagles 2-2 Record Earned Against Seasoned Opponents
West Valley’s football team finds itself in an unusual position.
Winners of their Frontier League opener last week, the Eagles are in a three-team championship race.
Unlike the other two teams, unbeatens East Valley and Cheney, WV has a 2-2 overall record.
However, the Eagles played three non-league schools with a combined 13-2 record. Between them, the other two schools’ opponents have won just 4 of 35 games, three of those by EV’s latest victim, Riverside.
“We could have played teams and beaten them by 20 to 30 points each but it wouldn’t have exposed our weaknesses,” said WV coach Steve Kent. “We didn’t want that to happen when something is on the line.”
WV lost to once-beaten Lewiston in its opener, played well in a close loss to unbeaten Post Falls, then beat previously perfect Sandpoint in its first three games.
Last week against Colville, the Eagles allowed only four rushing yards and 81 yards of total offense while compiling nearly 300 yards of offense during the 20-0 triumph.
“They thought going in that their strength was being able to control the football,” said Kent. “We ultimately did that to them.”
West Valley’s Ty Gregorak passed for 115 yards, rushed for 30, scored twice and passed for the other touchdown. All three scores came in the second half. He also was a defensive catalyst.
Justin Tichy rushed for 73 yards and caught two passes for 41 more.
“We were disappointed in the first half,” said Kent. “We thought we were playing pretty well.”
The return of Riley Allen defensively, he said, gave the team a boost.
Another player Kent pointed to is senior first-year player Jason Whitney.
“He’s just learning the game but comes in and gives us a shot in the arm at wide receiver,” said the coach.
A week ago Whitney punted for over 40 yards average and has kicked a couple of field goals. Against Colville he made one catch for 17 yards.
“He continues to come off the bench and make big plays,” said Kent.
This week, the Eagles host Pullman, a team which scored 54 points on them two years ago and escaped with a tie last year.
“Our goal is to wear them down. We’ve done that the last few weeks,” said Kent. “Physically we’ve taken teams down to where we’ve had our way with them.”
‘Secret weapon’ no longer secret
University High’s girls cross country team could no longer keep its “secret weapon” secret.
Sophomore Jaime Miller, in her first varsity race Saturday, ran a flight record 20:09, to win the race among No. 7 varsity runners at the Sunfair Invitational in Yakima.
Her time was second best among all Titan runners.
“There’s not much question she’s one of the top level runners,” said coach Steve Llewellyn. “It’s only her fifth meet and she’d won all the junior varsity races.”
She turned out as a freshman but missed much of the season because she played softball in junior high.
“She’s got talent,” said Llewellyn, “and the miles are catching up to her.”
U-Hi’s girls were fifth in the meet, fourth among schools likely to contend for three state berths at regionals later this year. The Titans ran without Lindsay Daehlin who is recovering from a cold. “We did well even moving people up a notch,” said Llewellyn of a meet that pits racers against each other based upon their position on a seven-person team.
U-Hi’s No. 6 runner Betsy Walter was fourth in flight 2, Kelsie Bly seventh in flight 3, Robyn Cross fourth in flight 4, Shanna DeLong ninth in flight 5, Kelli Kearsley sixth in flight 6 and Taraka Campbell 16th in flight 7.
In that race, West Valley’s Jessica Riehle finished third.
“We have to be 100 percent healthy two compete well,” said Llewellyn of U-Hi’s state prospects. “I still think we’re going to be there. I like where we’re headed.”
, DataTimes