Pullman Wraps Up Fl Crown

Pullman won the Frontier League football championship, which means Cheney’s season ended with its 26-0 win over West Valley.

Cheney coach Tom Oswald couldn’t have been happier.

“The only way to do it when you’re in the playoffs is to win the whole thing,” said Oswald.

More often than not his seasons have ended with a playoff loss, twice in the State AA finals.

Pullman’s 25-15 win at Clarkston (4-5, 3-3) Thursday night enabled the league to dispense with a Saturday tiebreaker and put the Greyhounds (7-2, 5-1) and East Valley (5-4, 4-2) in the playoffs.

Cheney (6-3, 4-2) shut out West Valley (2-7, 2-4) 26-0 to end its season on a high note.

“The kids played hard and I’m tickled they finished up this way,” Oswald said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve ended the season with a win.”

All scoring in the Pullman-Clarkston game came in the first half. Trailing 7-6 after a period, Pullman scored 19 second-quarter points for the win.

Jason Tyler’s 38-yard interception return for a touchdown, coming shortly after Greyhounds receiver L.C. Baxter’s TD catch, put the Greyhounds ahead 19-7.

The Bantams had taken the lead on an option pass of 58 yards from Adam Johnson to Aaron Jelinek. Jelinek also scored Clarkston’s other touchdown.

Clarkston had 366 yards of total offense, but couldn’t score again. A long second-half drive ended on a Baxter interception.

Pullman’s Aaron Linehan was 12 of 24 passing for 222 yards and three touchdowns.

Cheney made an argument for its place in the playoffs, although, said Oswald, the team didn’t get the job done when it had to.

Against West Valley, the Blackhawks displayed the economy of offense and solid defense that had produced a 35-7 win over league champion Pullman earlier this season.

In just 13 first-half offensive snaps the Blackhawks built a 20-0 lead over the Eagles.

Gino Williams sprinted untouched up the middle for a 72-yard score on Cheney’s second offensive play. Seven plays of 11 yards or longer, often the product of poor WV tackling, produced two other scores, by John Patterson and sophomore Pat Laughlin.

“When we played Pullman we played like this,” said Oswald, “but you’ve got to do it every week. We’ve been up and down all year.”

Pullman 25, Clarkston 15

Pullman 6 19 0 0 -25

Clarkston 7 8 0 0 -15

P-Hurlbert 39 pass from Linehan (kick failed) C-Jelinek 58 pass from Johnson (Wheeler kick) P-Baxter 21 pass from Linehan (pass failed) P-Tyler 38 interception return (run failed) C-Jelinek 9 pass from Burns (Wheeler pass from Burns) P-Brown 46 pass from Linehan (Hurlbert kick)

Cheney 26, West Valley 0

West Valley 0 0 0 0 - 0

Cheney 14 6 6 0 -26

C-Williams 72 run (Reynolds kick) C-Patterson 20 run (Reynolds kick) C-Laughlin 16 run (kick failed) C-Reynolds 20 pass from Stiffler (pass failed)

District 7-B volleyball

Ritzville pulled the biggest surprise of the opening day at Cheney High, winning twice to land in the championship match and qualify for the State B Tournament.

Ritzville, seeded third after the Bi-County League tournament and the fourth-place team during the regular season, beat Bi-County top-seeded Davenport 15-10, 9-15, 15-6 to cap its day.

The Broncos meet two-time defending state champion Wilbur-Creston at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the title match. Both teams advance to state.

Panorama League No. 1 Northwest Christian, Northport, Davenport and Odessa will fight Saturday for the third and final state berth. W-C beat NWC 15-8, 15-13 to push the Crusaders to the brink of elimination.

Panorama teams Selkirk and Springdale were eliminated from the eight-team field. Both had been seeded higher than league neighbor Northport.

, DataTimes