East claims victory

There’s no place like home. The Greater Spokane League’s nine players in the East-West All-Star Summer Classic high school football game at Central Valley proved that while contributing to the East’s 31-14 triumph.

Clarkston teammates Jason Curtis and Peter Leonard hooked up for a breathing-room touchdown in the third quarter and Shadle Park’s Andy Largent converted the game clincher with 7 minutes, 37 seconds remaining, a 75-yard catch and run from Stanford-bound QB Tavita Pritchard.

Six other GSL All-Stars on defense had a hand in keeping the West offense at bay, either with steady effort or big plays.

A couple of other athletes who are headed this way to play in college, 6-foot-6 tight end Nathan Overbay for the East and two-way standout Brandon Gibson from the West, were named Most Valuable Players of their respective teams.

Overbay, from W.F. West in Centralia, will play at Eastern Washington University, and Gibson, a wide receiver/defensive back from Rogers of Puyallup, is headed to Washington State University.

The East struck early, but only led 10-8 at halftime with the West, behind a powerful line, controlling the ball for much of the first 24 minutes.

But the East’s quarterbacking advantage, evident during practices throughout the week, and its kicking game ultimately took care of things.

“We have good receivers,” said winning coach Dave Curtis from Clarkston. “In the second quarter some ran average routes. In the second half they ran great routes and it really showed.”

The East took the second-half kickoff and drove 76 yards in 4:20. Overbay, who had five catches for 67 yards in the game, hauled in a ball thrown behind him one-handed for 25 yards and made a nice grab in traffic on third down just prior to Leonard’s crossing catch from his classmate and run for 23 yards and a 17-8 lead.

“I read the coverage, adjusted my rout, went to where it was open and my quarterback threw it to where I was going,” said Leonard. “This was our last high school touchdown, but we’re going to Central Washington together and hopefully it’s the first of many to come.”

Following a huge sack by Lewis and Clark defensive lineman Josh Shaw that thwarted a West drive, it was Pritchard’s turn.

He hooked up with Gonzaga Prep’s Brandon Kennedy on a 45-yard diving completion to set up a 14-yard strike to Overbay that made it 24-8 with 3:05 remaining in the third quarter.

“The third-down completion was pretty big. It set up Peter for the touchdown,” said Overbay of his earlier catch, adding he was glad he got to play with Pritchard. “He’s amazing and so is Jason. They’re both good quarterbacks and I wish them luck.”

Although the West had the ball for most of the fourth quarter, scoring with 9 minutes to go, Pritchard’s pass to Largent over the middle settled the game.

It was the only pass of the night to Largent, who broke open and then avoided one last-ditch tackle attempt to cover two-thirds of the length of the field.

“The safety bit on the fake, it was a perfect ball and I kept running,” said Largent. The victory was the East’s 10th in the last 13 games and ended a two-year run by the West.

The stage was set early when Taryn Sanders picked off a pass. Nine plays later, Pritchard rolled right and hit Sean McNulty across the field for the game’s first touchdown.

Three minutes later kicker Ryan Perkins, who sent his first three kickoffs into the end zone, booted a massive 55-yard field goal with room to spare. It was his career longest by 7 yards.

Behind its line, the West took command of momentum, but Shaw swatted a bobbled catch away for a fumble that stopped one drive. It wasn’t until the end of the half that the West, on a pass from Mark Iddins to Gibson, cut the lead to two points.

The West ended the game with a statistical advantage, completing 34 of 60 passes for 340 yards and finishing with 404 yards of total offense to the East’s 344.

But the team couldn’t finish its drives.

In the second half Shaw’s sack, an interception by Central Valley’s Tommy Kadoya – one of three by the East team – and work by defensive backs Derek Brown of North Central, Cheney’s Brett Igbinoba and Kennedy kept the team at bay.

Defensive lineman Ryan Murphy from Gonzaga Prep also factored up front until going down in the third quarter with a knee injury.

“Everyone of the guys I knew from the GSL played really hard and all did our part,” said Brown.

The West’s Gibson finished with 12 catches for 113 yards, and Richie Tri from Jackson had 10 catches for 105. Quarterbacks Iddins and Corey Slater pretty much divided the passing and yards, the former with 145, the latter with 190.

Pritchard completed 8 of 15 passes for 214 yards, and Curtis was 7 for 12 for 70. Besides the work of Overbay, Leonard had two catches for 65 yards.

But neither team could mount much of a ground game.