Trick plays spark Knights

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … and East Valley is officially in the State 3A football playoff field of 16.

The Knights not once, but twice, turned pitch plays to running back Brady Brunelle into long touchdown-producing passes to George Hamilton and EV’s punishing defense did the rest to throttle visiting West Valley-Yakima 30-3 in a play-in game to the state tournament.

With the win, EV (8-3) plays at home Saturday against Clover Park (8-1) in the first round of the playoffs.

Brunelle took the first pitch from quarterback Jye Lanphere and found a wide-open Hamilton for a 43-yard score and 17-0 lead with 2 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Brunelle and Hamilton hooked up again, this time for 51 yards down to the 9-yard line late in the fourth quarter with the score 17-3. Two Brunelle running plays later and the Knights were ahead 24-3 with 3:04 remaining.

“Just because you run a trick play once and have success doesn’t mean you can’t do it again. There’s no rule against that,” EV coach Adam Fisher said. “If they’re going to be overly aggressive and try to get the corner and safety on the pitch, then you run the pass to slow them down.”

It was a lesson unlearned by the Rams, whose season ended at 9-2.

The game initially promised to be a tussle between two teams with an emphasis on defense. EV’s proved as good as advertised with several spectacular plays, countless run-stopping hits and three goal-line stands that by and large rendered West Valley’s offense ineffective.

“It was incredible,” said Fisher. “Early in the game, they had short fields constantly and the defense just stepped up to the plate each and every time. To be 0-0 in the second quarter was the same as us being ahead because of what we gave them and they didn’t produce.”

Initially, it was tough to tell which had the most effect during the scoreless standoff for the bulk of the first half, the teams’ defenses or penalties.

WV-Yakima had seven for 60 yards, the Knights four for 36.

Most damaging were three penalties in a promising series by the Rams that began with a huge 51-yard reverse run by Brandon Sears. With an EV personal foul tacked on, it put the ball at the 21-yard line.

The Rams moved to the 12 but didn’t score. The penalties, in succession, backed them up to the 38, and despite getting first-and-goal at the eight on a Phillip Jennings completion and 16-yard Joel Wolfard run, Jennings was then picked off by Knights defensive back Grant Bruscoe.

It was the first of three times WV-Yakima would have the ball inside the EV 10 and the first of four Knights interceptions.

The Knights finally drove 81 yards in eight plays for the game’s first score with 1:14 remaining. It was a 10-0 game 4:40 into the third quarter before the Brunelle-Hamilton connections.

“George runs a great route and is pretty much unstoppable,” Brunelle said. “I just thought about putting the ball right on the money and I guess that’s what I did.”

Defensive standouts were too many to mention considering the ferocity of the hits and the number of deflections and Rams turnovers.

Bruscoe had two interceptions, the last for a 98-yard TD return with time expired that thwarted the Rams one last time. He should have had a third pickoff.

The most spectacular pick was by Lanphere late in the third quarter. He twisted backwards 180 degrees, reached out and secured the ball by his fingertips, and somehow cradled it on his way to the turf.

“I can’t believe I caught that,” Lanphere said. “I just turned and there it was. I have no idea how, it happened so fast.”

Fisher said it was as good a catch as you’d see on any level.

“It was big-time. There’s no way else to describe it,” he said.

Of the effort that limited the Rams to a handful of big plays?

“We’ve got some guys out there who’d rather hit you than talk to you,” Fisher said. “That’s good when you play defense.”

Prosser 35, Clarkston 14

Clarkston tied the game at 7 in the first quarter, but thereafter it was all Mustangs.

Prosser’s balanced attack spread the scoring throughout every quarter and the statistics around as they built a 35-7 advantage.

Sophomore lefty quarterback Kellen Moore threw for 167 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers, including Ivan Merino. Merino gained 77 yards and had a rushing TD, as did Jared Hancock, who rushed for 98 yards on 19 attempts.

Jason Curtis of the Bantams completed 15 of 29 passes for 214 yards and a late touchdown to James Bennett.

The Bantams ended their season at 5-6. Prosser moves to 11-0 and will next face Timberline in Lacey.