Prep perks up to drop Mt. Spokane

For the first 35 minutes of Thursday night’s game, the Gonzaga Prep Bullpups were flustered. They were frustrated. And they were trailing Mt. Spokane by 10 points.

But the next 10 minutes? Those were all Gonzaga Prep’s, as the Bullpups roared back to topple the Wildcats 28-17 before 3,155 in the second game of the Greater Spokane League doubleheader at Albi Stadium.

In the night’s opener, Lewis and Clark’s defense allowed North Central into its territory only once in a 34-0 shutout win.

“They are a well-coached team, and they played well,” G-Prep coach Dave Carson said of a Wildcats team that had an almost 3-to-1 yardage edge at halftime. “But we certainly weren’t playing as well as we could have. We were frustrated, especially in the first half.”

The first half ended with Mt. Spokane up 10-0. The lead was built on a combination of Cats defense and G-Prep errors. The Pups (4-0, 3-0 GSL) fumbled four times before intermission, losing two.

The first led to Matt Megaard’s 23-yard field goal.

“The defense holding them to three points down there was huge, huge,” Carson said.

The second fumble, at the Mt. Spokane 1-yard line, cost the Pups what looked to be a sure score just before halftime.

In between, the Wildcats (2-2, 1-2) scored on Kris Pryor’s 6-yard run on a wingback counter, the play that led to most of the Cats’ 135 first-half yards. The Pups had fewer than 50 yards headed to the locker room as Mt. Spokane’s moving, attacking, hard-hitting front seven seemed to destroy the Pups’ option attack.

“They hit us harder than anyone has all year,” said Prep running back Conner Hare. “It wasn’t even close.”

But G-Prep adjusted to the Wildcats’ schemes – and to the pace of the game – on both sides of the ball.

“We needed to just relax and play,” Carson said. “We didn’t make major changes, but we executed better, especially on defense. We had a good game plan, we just had to execute the assignments.

“And we had to make better decisions on offense.”

The Pups did both, but they still didn’t get on the board until there was a minute left in the third quarter. The first score came on Vince Tschrigi’s 1-yard run.

And it opened the floodgates. Over the next 10 minutes the Pups:

“Took advantage of a bad punt snap to begin their next possession on the Wildcats 15, letting quarterback Max Manix score on the next play;

“Went 88 yards in two plays on their next possession, with Hare going the final 80 on a power run over left tackle;

“Scored again the next time they touched the ball, this time on Hare’s 73-yard run through the same hole. The senior, who had 29 yards on six first-half carries, finished with 190 on 12.

“They were shifting late and attacking,” he said, “and we didn’t really figure it out until we opened those two holes late. There was enough of a lane up front, and I was able to outrun them.”

But, even with a 28-10 lead, less than 2 minutes left, and with the ball, the Pups still couldn’t put the Wildcats away. A fumble recovery and a 64-yard return Rob Humphrey with 58 seconds left got Mt. Spokane closer. But the Wildcats got no closer as G-Prep covered the on-side kick.

Lewis and Clark 34, North Central 0

Rarely in the 96 years of this rivalry (see story on C1) has it been so lopsided.

The Indians (0-4, 0-3) had 42 yards total offense. They had two first downs – the first with 9 minutes left in the third quarter, the last with 3:20 left. They turned over the ball four times, forcing just one turnover.

But it was time of possession where the gap was the widest, with the Tigers controlling the ball for more than 30 minutes.

“We played well on defense,” LC coach Tom Yearout said. “We kept them on a long field, and the one time they had a short field we forced a turnover.

“We also did a good job of containing (Shane Thomas). We kept him in the box and didn’t let him stretch the field and find creases, so we must have tackled well.”

Thomas came in leading the GSL in rushing with 313 yards, averaging more than 6 yards per carry. But he was held to 29 yards on 13 attempts, little more than 2 yards per attempt.

The Tigers’ Ethen Robinson also found the running tough, finishing with 106 yards on 22 carries. But the senior found the end zone twice, both on short runs as part of LC’s 233 rushing yards.

It was sophomore Christian Collins who had the long scoring run, 31 yards around left end early in the second quarter. He finished with a career-high 89 yards on his first 16 varsity carries.