Falcons Come Through Big-Time

Need a big play?

Call on Sprague-Harrington.

The Falcons got big-play scores from their offense, defense and special teams to upend Inchelium 44-28 in a crucial Northeast B-8 matchup Friday at Sprague. The Falcons are now in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed into the playoffs with one loss. Inchelium suffered its second league loss. The first was a forfeit after using an ineligible player for three plays at the end of a 26-6 win over Cusick in Week 4. Inchelium coach Duane Gatlin discovered the error and reported it to the league. That lifted Cusick, a winner Friday over Columbia, into a tie for first place with S-H. Three teams make the playoffs.

Colin Floyd, Austin Becker and Jeff Engles were the high flyers for the Falcons.

Floyd, slanting from the right, caught a short pass from Engles and turned it into an 80-yard touchdown to open the scoring. After Inchelium drove for a touchdown, Floyd took the kickoff 82 yards for a score and a 14-8 lead after one quarter.

Inchelium made an inspired stand at the goal line, but Chris Green tackled Hornets quarterback Jacolby Simpson in the end zone for a safety. One play after the kickoff went out of bounds, Becker turned a simple trap into a 45-yard touchdown.

“They’re big and they’re fast,” Inchelium coach Duane Gatlin said. “They came out and took it to us. We made mistakes we haven’t made all year but they were the better football team today.”

David Tonasket got Inchelium back into the game with a 49-yard run that set up his 9-yard TD, but on their next possession, the Hornets got pinned inside their five. Then a handoff between Simpson and Chris Burch - the duo who scored the first touchdown on a 9-yard pass play - went awry. Simpson tried to bat the ball out of the end zone but Kiall Swift recovered for a touchdown and a 28-16 lead at the half.

“We didn’t do much with the football,” Engles said. “Those couple of plays did it. They have a good defensive team.”

Becker had two more touchdowns in the second half. The first was a 58-yard run on a trap the play after Tonasket’s 4-yard TD capped a short drive following Jon Swan’s fumble recovery on the 35.

The second was 2 yards to end a four-play drive in the waning moments.

“Our blocking is excellent,” Becker said after rushing for 139 yards on 20 carries. “Our linemen turned it up today.”

The trap was a new play for the Falcons, put in by coach Randy Behrens this week. “We have other misdirection stuff we’ve been using but we felt we needed something a little different,” he said.

Lineman Justin Sauer provided the key blocks when the new play was called. Defensively, Aaron Timm had 10 tackles and 12 assists.

For Inchelium, Tonasket finished with 207 yards on 34 carries.