Reardan, DeSales move to B-11 final

KENNEWICK – Revenge was the dish, and yes, it was cold at Lampson Stadium.

But not cold enough to keep Reardan from avenging its lone loss this season. Or cold enough to keep DeSales from its do-over, though the Irish have been lusting after theirs for 51 weeks.

In the opener of Saturday’s State B-11 semifinals, Reardan held Northeast B-11 rival Davenport to 16 yards of total offense en route to a 29-7 win in an almost complete reversal of their league contest. In the below-freezing nightcap, DeSales avenged a loss in last year’s final, and avenged it with emphasis, routing Lind-Ritzville 51-0.

Reardan 29, Davenport 7

In the first meeting between these rivals, the Gorillas rallied in the fourth quarter for a 29-22 win, knocking the Indians from the top spot in the B-11 state poll. Then they did something they would regret.

“When we played them in early October everyone, their players, coaches and fans all stormed the field as if they had won the state championship,” Reardan coach Eric Nikkola said. “Our kids saw that and they took it to heart. They didn’t want it to happen again.”

And neither did Nikkola want the Gorillas, who finish 11-1, using their size to dominate up front, as was the case in the first meeting.

“The first time we played them, they hit us in the mouth pretty good,” said Reardan running back and linebacker Bob Christerson. “We didn’t expect it. This time we were ready.”

And in their pockets the Indians carried a different game plan.

Defensively, Reardan (10-1) moved its nose guard over the Davenport center so “Bob could run free,” Nikkola said. “It’s also obvious size on our front line isn’t our strength, so we had to use quickness, rotate people to keep them fresh and get in the gaps.”

Christerson roamed free enough to make the Indians’ first five tackles (he finished with eight). By the time someone else made a tackle, Reardan led 13-0.

And that was because of the other game-plan change, this one on the offensive side.

“We usually play straight up, power, smash-mouth football,” senior quarterback Eric Everett said. “We thought we could catch them off guard. It worked great.”

What worked was Reardan’s use of counter plays, where a back starts to one side, linemen pull the other way and the back plants and follows the big guys into the hole.

“They are very aggressive on defense, especially their linebackers,” Nikkola said. “So we started going with the counter plays, something that’s been a staple here since Gene Smith coached, though we haven’t used them much this season. Their backers were biting on the first fake and it worked real well.”

On Reardan’s second possession, the Indians started in Davenport territory and moved the ball to the 18 in seven plays. Facing a third-and-3, Jake Federer countered right, burst free, stepped through two tacklers at the 3 and scored standing up.

A three-and-out became a six-and-out after a muffed punt, but the Indians defense still gave the offense another short field. Starting at the Gorillas 36, Everett connected with Jon Jayne on a screen for 29 yards, moving the ball to the 9, where three plays later Everett sneaked it in.

Everett finished with 50 yards passing (both completions to Jayne on screens) and 50 yards rushing.

At the half, Davenport had run 19 plays and only two ended in positive yardage. Total offense: minus-32 yards. How did the Indians do it?

“We’ve been working on a gap blitz since the playoffs started,” Christerson said. “We’ve really practiced it and it showed. Almost every time we got in the gaps, we’d make a play.”

Davenport quarterback Kyle Nelson started the second possession of the second half by making a play, a 22-yard scoring scramble. So despite having negative yardage, despite having held the ball for a little more than 7 minutes, the Gorillas trailed just 13-7 with more than 20 minutes to play.

But that was as close as they could get. Just before the end of the third quarter, the Indians sent Christerson, who finished with 156 yards on 26 carries, in motion on a first-and-10 from the Davenport 36. The linebacker followed, the middle was open and Everett ran a quarterback draw in the vacated area, not stopping until he crossed the goal line.

Though the two-point conversion failed, the Indians’ Chad Godley took care of that on the next possession, converting a 32-yard field goal to raise the lead to 15.

Christerson finished the night by accounting for 82 yards of an 11-play, 5-minute, 92-yard drive that culminated in his 12-yard touchdown run.

DeSales 51, Lind-Ritzville 0

When the Broncos rallied from a 21-0 third-quarter deficit to win last year’s championship game 25-21, they sealed their fate in this one.

“That was a tough game,” said Irish quarterback Jack Dickson, who came off the bench in last year’s loss. “It hurt a lot.”

So Dickson and the Irish (12-1, the only loss to 1A Colfax) defense made Lind-Ritzville (8-4) pay.

The senior quarterback threw for 226 yards (on 10 of 15 passing) and three touchdowns (he also ran for another) in three quarters of play.

DeSales limited L-R to 4 yards of first-half total offense, though last year’s B-11 player of the year, Nick Ashley, shook free enough in the second half to finish with 106 yards on 19 carries.

The Irish were great on special teams, with their kickoff unit pinning the Broncos inside their 20 throughout the first half. And then there was punt returner Michael Richard, who capped the scoring with a Reggie Bush-like 78-yard return, where he started down the left sideline, planted at the 43-yard line and broke back across the field – making all 11 Broncos miss – en route to the end zone.

Now the Irish, who will be playing in their state-record 10th final, get another chance at revenge next Saturday at the Tacoma Dome, part of the two-day Gridiron Classic. The Indians befuddled and upset DeSales 13-3 in the 2003 final, ending the Irish’s undefeated title hopes.

“Now we get a chance to beat Reardan, which will be super. It will be a chance at double revenge,” Dickson said.