Broncos win 25-21 in Lynch’s finale
TACOMA – His players wanted to send Lind-Ritzville football coach Mike Lynch out with a win. After 31 years, Lynch was hanging it up after his Broncos’ B-11 state championship game with DeSales on Friday.
It looked bleak with 13 minutes to play and Lind-Ritzville trailing by three touchdowns.
What was Lynch thinking?
“In a Pollyanna world, anything is possible,” he said.
Welcome to Pollyanna’s world, Mike. The scoreboard there reads: Lind-Ritzville 25, DeSales 21.
The winning score may have been on a 75-yard pass from Travis Dewald to Jake Phillips with 1 minute and 5l seconds left in Lynch’s coaching career. But the win was built around something else.
“This was all heart and guts,” he said on the Tacoma Dome sidelines as he accepted congratulations from his friends and neighbors. “We had shot ourselves in the foot pretty well for three quarters, but these kids have such big hearts. They just wouldn’t give up.”
They are also able to improvise, as the game-winning score illustrated.
Trailing 21-18, but with momentum built by three consecutive scoring drives, the Broncos took over after a 60-yard Casey Worth punt had pinned them 75 yards from a win.
“It was a play we hadn’t used all year,” said Dewald, before being asked if he meant just in a game. “No, not just in a game, we haven’t even practiced it.”
Wide receiver Jake Phillips said on the stop-and-go route he “stopped at about 5 yards and the corner bit a little bit. Travis was under pressure, the ball was a little short, so I came back and caught it. Everything was happening so fast, I just saw the green and started running.”
Cutting through two defensive backs, he didn’t stop until he hit the end zone.
“I was thinking I’m going to have to go to church on Sunday,” Lynch said of the play. “I have to say thanks.”
Dewald would have been thankful, but he didn’t know what was going on.
“I didn’t see what happened,” said the junior quarterback who hit just 9 of 21 passes but for 232 yards and two touchdowns. “I got hit pretty good and knocked down. When I got up I thought I saw him in the end zone, but I didn’t know what happened.”
Which might have been DeSales’ sentiments as well. The Irish, who finished 12-2, were appearing in a state-record ninth state final, including seven of the last nine. When they built the 21-0 lead, it looked like they would win their fifth title.
The DeSales scores came on a blocked punt by James Crosby that was recovered in the end zone by Nick Richard, a Jack Dickson 5-yard toss to Nick Conley – both in the first half – and what looked to be the clincher, a 67-yard interception return by Zac Ebding 4 minutes into the third quarter.
Ebding’s play, which came as Nick Ashley tried to throw a halfback pass on a fourth-and-7, was the last Lind-Ritzville (13-0) mistake.
Ashley, who finished with 117 yards on 24 carries, scored the Broncos’ first touchdown with 53 seconds left in the quarter. A 33-yard Dewald third-down pass to freshman Sam Whitman ignited the drive. The extra point missed, however, and DeSales seemed safe.
Not to Lynch.
“After the first touchdown, I thought, ‘maybe’,” he said. “If we can keep it close, put some pressure on them, then we’ll see what happens.
What happened was the Broncos’ on-side kick failed. But the defense held when Worth missed a 36-yard field goal.
Two long Dewald passes later – a 32-yarder to Jon McPherson and a 27-yarder for the score to Andy Wellsandt – and the noose was tightening, even though the two-point conversion failed.
A holding play killed the Irish’s next drive and Conley broke loose for 25 yards to open the drive. Four plays later he scored from a yard out, the PAT was good and it was 21-19.
DeSales pulled quarterback Dickson, who threw for more than 3,300 yards this year but had just 124 Friday, and went with Conley at quarterback to try to run out the last 4:30.
Running wasn’t an option, though, just like all game, and Worth come on for his B-11 championship record 60-yard punt. The Irish had a minus-18 total rushing yards, also a record, against a Broncos defense keyed by Drew Phillips, who had a team-high seven tackles, and Jake Kragt, with six, including two sacks on DeSales’ final possession.
“This is the greatest moment of my life,” said Kragt, limping off the field.
It was the greatest comeback in Lynch’s career, “bar none,” and this may have been his best team.
“We’ve never had a 13-0 season before,” Lynch said when asked to compare this team to his 30 others. “To win a state championship, to come back from 21 points down against a very good team, that’s something really special.”
Now he wants to do something special.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to strap the state trophy to the front of the bus and drive all the way home like that,” he said.
3A: Bellevue 31, Ferndale 28
In the late game at the Tacoma Dome, the Wolverines made it four straight State 3A titles thanks to explosive junior running back Keith Rosenberg, but they had to withstand a frantic finish.
Led by Rosenberg’s three first-half touchdowns, the Wolverines defeated the Golden Eagles, although the game wasn’t over until the final minute.
Bellevue (13-0) led 24-7 at halftime as Rosenberg had touchdown bursts of 51, 54 and 36 yards. In the first half, the junior had 166 yards on five carries. But Ferndale (13-2) came to within three points twice in the second half.