G-Prep squeezes into state quarters

If there was any doubt that this year’s Gonzaga Prep football team could be one for the ages, the Bullpups continue to make believers.

Trailing Moses Lake 26-10 at intermission and struggling for answers, they somehow willed a 32-26 Kansas tiebreaker victory that left coach Dave Carson incredulous once more.

“That was a wild game,” he said. “We find a way to do it. I don’t know what it is. You tell me, I don’t know.”

The Bullpups (10-1) advance to a State 4A quarterfinal meeting with Eastlake (9-2) at 1 p.m. next Saturday at G-Prep.

The answer Friday, in the main, was junior Bryan Karwacki. A late season addition at tailback, G-Prep’s backup quarterback and linebacker standout came up huge on both sides of the football.

On offense, he gained 51 yards rushing, scoring the winning touchdown in overtime after throwing a 36-yard tailback touchdown pass to Michael Alexander that tied the game 26-26 with 3:35 left in regulation.

“They put in a short-yardage system with me and (a third back, Ian) Orlando coming into the playoffs,” said Karwacki. “The linemen did a great job opening it up.”

The TD toss came on a play added this week.

The game was played on an unfit night when rain came down in sheets, the main culprit in the eight turnovers coughed up between the teams. Wind played havoc with the kicking games, although subsequently it played a major part in G-Prep’s comeback.

But Carson said that for the first time this year he sensed doubt in his players when they fell behind after typical G-Prep modus operandi staked them to a 10-0 lead.

A fumble recovery on the opening kickoff led to a short-yardage touchdown and a defensive stop set up Mat Barker’s 42-yard field goal with the wind at his back for a 10-0 lead midway in the first quarter.

Thereafter, nothing went right for G-Prep, from turnovers, to poor tackling, to 14 penalties for 118 yards and a Moses Lake defense keyed by Taylor Stout that early on stole the Bullpups’ thunder.

First, however, the Chiefs got two huge option runs by senior quarterback Ben Waites that accounted for 61 of the 80 yards they covered on a touchdown drive after G-Prep built its lead.

Interceptions by Josh Loera and two-way standout Ryan Carpenter, and a fumbled catch by Alexander, produced three more Chiefs short-field TDs and put the Bullpups in a deep hole. But missed extra points at least kept the Chiefs in sight.

Several times when G-Prep made a defensive stop or first down, the Bullpups were stymied by penalties.

But they began tackling as they can, the defense played takeaway football and had two second-half blocked punts to help shut down Moses Lake.

In the third quarter, following a fumble recovery, Bullpups quarterback Max Manix capped the series with an uncovered roll-out run to make it 26-16. Prior to that was the first of two key passes to junior back Brian Lee that accounted for 43 of Manix’s 144 passing yards.

Lee’s 26-yard grab took the ball to the 5-yard line. The second completion put the Bullpups at the 7, where Barker missed a chip-shot field goal. No matter, the defense held and Barker boomed a 52-yarder to put G-Prep within a TD.

“That gave us hope that anywhere on the field we can get it,” said Karwacki. “In my mind that set the tone that we could come back.”

Another defensive stand, and Karwacki fooled the Chiefs defense with his touchdown pass.

The Bullpups missed a chance to win with a field goal in regulation.

But in overtime, linebacker Travis Long intercepted Waites on Moses Lake’s tiebreaker series that begins at the 25-yard line and G-Prep loaded up the backfield on its possession. Karwacki carried five times, interspersed with three more penalties, and gained 27 of the 44 yards the Bullpups needed to win.

They somehow, some way live to play again.

“I learned tonight how we don’t give up,” Karwacki said. “It was a huge game. We showed a lot of character.”