LC rides tailback to win
Ethen Robinson can run like a thoroughbred, but he’s Lewis and Clark’s workhorse.
The senior tailback did what he does best Thursday night, carrying the ball 24 times for 143 yards and a score in leading the Tigers past visiting Clarkston 28-0 at a soggy Albi Stadium.
Robinson led the Greater Spokane League in carries last year. He leads the league in carries this year. In other words, he’s the perfect ballcarrier for the Tigers’ ball-control offense.
“He’s tough, and he never complains,” said LC coach Tom Yearout. “He just keeps taking handoffs and running the ball. The difference tonight was we blocked better. We did a better job up front.”
Robinson agreed.
“We did a good job of blocking tonight,” he said, deflecting credit toward the guys up front.
Last week, when the Tigers were shut out by Central Valley, the holes weren’t there, and it showed in Robinson’s 69 yards on 19 carries.
“You still have to make plays,” the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Robinson said of last week’s tough running, “and I didn’t. You have to keep pounding, just put your head down and pound them.”
That’s what the sprinter – he’s run a 10.9 100 meters – did Thursday.
Robinson put the Tigers (4-1 overall, 4-1 in GSL play) on the scoreboard first, carrying seven times in a nine-play, 80-yard drive that spanned the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. His 9-yard scoring run around left end was preceded by a 25-yarder on what looked to be the same play.
He had his longest run of the night on the Tigers’ next drive, a 29-yarder in which he probably covered 60 yards. He started around left end but was hemmed in, so he broke back all the way across the field and down the right sideline before being tripped up.
In came sophomore backup Christian Collins, who covered the final 34 yards of the 81-yard drive in four plays, including a 10-yard scoring run.
The Tigers added a fourth-quarter, 17-yard scoring pass from Roger Kugler to Ben Seebeck, who backpedaled into the end zone waiting for the ball after the Clarkston defender fell down, and a Dusty Stanek 2-yard run as time ran out.
The Bantams (1-5, 1-4) had their scoring opportunities, but two missed field goals and a missed fourth-down pass at the LC 20 ensured the Tigers’ shutout.
“We made a couple of big stops inside the 30 that allowed us to keep running the ball,” Yearout said.
With the Clarkston rushing attack stymied (69 yards), the Bantams relied on quarterback Trent Line, the GSL’s top-rated passer coming in.
The junior was 17 of 31 for 146 yards, but he also had three late interceptions (his first of the year), two by LC junior Matt Proost.