Balance of power tipped in GSL
On a Thursday night that was supposed to feature tight matchups, Central Valley and Lewis and Clark showed that the Greater Spokane League may not be as balanced as previously thought.
The Bears dominated at the line of scrimmage and dispatched one of the preseason favorites, Shadle Park, 17-7 in the doubleheader opener. Then LC methodically wore down North Central en route to a 24-6 win over the Indians before 3,150 at Albi Stadium.
You could say CV wore down Shadle as well, except all of the Bears’ scoring came in the first half. Still, CV won this one up front, on both sides of the ball.
The Bears’ offensive front six keyed a ground game that pounded out 195 yards on 45 carries, including 113 in the second half while protecting a 17-point lead. Central Valley only passed twice all night, both complete and both in the first half.
CV (2-2, 2-1 in GSL play) built its lead with three short drives, all keyed by Shadle mistakes.
The first drive, which led to a Zach Evans’ 40-yard field goal, started at the Highlanders’ 33 following a fumbled punt snap.
The second, CV’s longest, started at the Bears’ 43 after Shadle was unable to convert a fourth down from the CV 37. The 57-yard drive was successful when Evans recovered Tommy Kadoya’s fumble in the end zone.
The final Bears score came just before half on Kadoya’s 1-yard run, culminating a 35-yard drive that began with a 15-yard Shadle Park penalty on a punt to midfield.
After halftime CV went conservative, relying on Dane Knutson to carry the load behind blocks by Chase Schmidt, Kameron Kempe and C.E. Kaiser, among others.
“They are starting to come off the ball a little bit,” CV coach Rick Giampietri said of his offensive line. “We’ve got a lot of pretty green guys up there. But when they come out with flat backs and get off the ball like they did against Mead and tonight, we can run our offense pretty well.”
That offense consisted in large part in giving the ball to Knutson, who finished with 105 yards on 12 carries, most on off-tackle plays.
“My blockers just did an excellent job,” he said. “All I had to do was shoot the hole then bounce outside. They were getting to everybody.”
Defensively, the Bears were getting to the Shadle (1-2, 1-2) running game, handicapped with halfback Ryne Kiter out due to injury and fullback Brian Kranches (71 yards on 16 carries) sitting out the second quarter for treatment.
Without a running game (the Highlanders gained just 77 yards on the ground), quarterback Josh Powell had trouble sparking the passing offense. Until the second half.
Powell scored Shadle’s lone touchdown on a 1-yard run, capping a 95-yard drive, 57 coming on passes. Powell finished 14 of 24 passing, for 199 yards, 161 of those after halftime.
He had Shadle in position to score again midway through the final quarter, but the Highlanders’ 80-yard drive came up empty when they fumbled and CV’s Tyler Folk recovered in the end zone.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Giampietri said. “It’s too bad we didn’t get last week’s game (28-13 loss to East Valley) because we would be in great shape. But now we have beaten the preseason No. 1 (Mead) and No. 2 (Shadle).”
Lewis and Clark 24, North Central 6
The Tigers dominated the first half, holding the Indians to 47 total yards while building a 17-0 lead. The Indians got untracked after halftime, but their 247 second-half yards included two long drives that resulted in zero points.
“We tackled pretty well in space in the first half,” Lewis and Clark coach Tom Yearout said. “We played our base defense and tried to keep leverage on the outside. You have to cancel their trap and for the most part we did that. Our defensive line played well. They didn’t run up field and get themselves out of position.”
When Kris Higgins’ 48-yard field-goal attempt hit the crossbar and bounced back late in the third quarter, the Indians, who haven’t defeated LC since 1991, must have known it wasn’t going to happen this night.
And it was sure when LC (3-0, 3-0) took the ensuing possession and went 80 yards in seven plays, capped by Himes Alexander’s 23-yard scoring run.
North Central (2-2, 1-2) finally got on the scoreboard with a little less than 5 minutes left on Derek Brown’s 1-yard run, the Indians’ fourth attempt from within the 4-yard line. Brown finished the night with 184 yards on 29 carries, all but 13 yards coming after halftime.
The Tigers’ leading rusher was once again Ethan Robinson, who carried 28 times to gain 104 yards, and scored once. QB Chad Bemis threw for another 89 yards, 62 of those going to Kevin Luby, who had five catches, including a 17-yard TD.
The Tigers travel to CV next Friday.