Steeneck Tears Up Saxons Late-Arriving Pirate Lets Emotions Show Before Fueling Rogers’ Win

Tears of sadness turned into tears of joy Friday night at Albi Stadium. Darryn Steeneck, in danger of missing Rogers’ game against Ferris, picked off two passes and scored the winning touchdown with 44 seconds left to give the Pirates a 19-16 win.

There were also tears of joy in the second game as Central Valley kept its playoff hopes alive with a 20-9 win over Lewis and Clark. The Greater Spokane League doubleheader drew 2,110.

CV (5-3, 5-3) ends the regular season with a non-league game next week, while LC (4-3, 4-3) plays Gonzaga Prep (5-2, 5-3). If the Tigers lose, they’re out. If they win, there will be at least a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots.

But the compelling story was Steeneck’s.

“He was late,” Rogers coach Dave Pomante said, “and it was not the first time. I called him over and asked him where he was… . He was almost in tears. He was pretty emotional. He asked if he was going to have to sit out. I said, ‘No, get in there.’

“The only reason I let him play is he showed me some emotion, he showed how much he cared.” Steeneck then went out and played the game of his life. Still, the game turned on a controversial decision by the Saxons (2-5, 2-6), who faced a fourth-and-1 from their own 42-yard line with 1:20 left. The Pirates (2-5, 2-6) stopped Ty Williams and two plays later Jeff Mace hit Steeneck with the game-winning pass.

“It was a dumb decision; the kids talked me into it,” Ferris coach Clarence Hough said. “Maybe we should have punted and made them go a long ways. I thought, ‘If we don’t get a yard, the defense can stop them.’ I didn’t think they would beat us over the top. They hadn’t been able to do that all game.”

After the stop, Mace hit Cameron Winfrey for 7 yards. Then Steeneck raced down the sideline, made the catch behind a defender and tip-toed the last 7 yards to stay inbounds.

“It surprised me that the ball was coming to me,” Steeneck said. “I don’t usually get the long ones. It’s usually the younger guys who are faster than me. I knew I had to catch it.”

The Pirates, who got 222 yards rushing from Mike Dorton, had marched from their 22 to the Ferris 31 and were facing a fourth-and-1 when Brandon Riordan stuffed Dorton for a 2-yard loss with 3:12 to play.

But the Saxons couldn’t get 10 yards on four carries by Williams and the Pirates got the ball back with 80 seconds and just one timeout remaining.

“We didn’t feel we had enough clock with the amount of timeouts to march it down,” Pomante said of his decision to call two pass plays when Mace was just 4 of 11 for 37 yards. “We felt we had to make something happen.”

CV made a nice turnaround a week after being humbled 30-14 by Shadle Park.

“The defensive coaches raised a little hell,” lineman Jason Robisch said.

“We worked a lot on fundamentals,” CV coach Rick Giampietri said. “Some three-on-three, the basics on how to play football. Our kids learned the game is played in the trenches; you have to block and tackle. I was happy the kids came to play after getting pushed around last week.”

Two first-half fumbles, the second of which led to a 6-0 LC lead, stymied the Bears early. Then, in the final seconds of the first half, Travis Brown raced in from the left side and blocked a punt with Patrick Libey returning the ball 35 yards for a touchdown.

The Bears used superior field position to take the lead in the third quarter and an interception deep in LC territory to clinch the game.

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