Sun sets on Knights

An early dose of East Valley junior Dakota Lawson Friday night was not enough to halt Southridge’s late-season football run of success.

The Suns (6-4) rallied from a two-touchdown deficit for the second time in two trips to the Spokane area, beating the Knights at EV 30-14 and advancing to the State 3A playoffs next Saturday.

“To come back from a 0-4 record and be at this point is right where we want to be,” said Southridge coach Andy Troxel. “There are 16 teams left now and it’s anybody’s game. We feel like were as hot as anybody, have won six games in a row and beaten some good football teams.”

The victory over EV (3-6), both Troxel and EV coach Adam Fisher agreed, was a product of the diversified Suns offense, relentless defense and better depth. The Suns piled up 360 yards of offense, 138 of it rushing on the yeoman 31 carries of Tate Stiles.

Quarterback Andrew Mendenhall made several clutch completions while throwing for 163 yards, when he wasn’t catching a couple of passes from backup Raef Pedersen.

“Raef’s done a great job and when you put a great athlete, Andrew, out in the slot and get a linebacker on him, that’s a mismatch,” said Troxel.

The Knights, said Fisher, had no answer for Southridge nose guard Josh Antonson, a trio of Suns linebackers and sophomore defensive end Austin Graves, who Troxel said, “tortured them all night.

“We play gap-control defense and everyone has assignments,” he added. “We want to be aggressive and put pressure on people.”

As a result, EV quarterback Lonnie Quirk was being chased around and threw three interceptions – the last returned by linebacker Brad Anderson for a touchdown.

The running game, primarily Case Parker, who gained 48 yards on 24 carries, averaged less than a yard per carry.

“It was pretty obvious early on that running and getting 0-2 yards consistently was not going to get the job done,” said Fisher.

But the Knights stunned the Suns with two first-quarter touchdowns, just as Coeur d’Alene had done two weeks earlier before losing 17-14.

On the third play of the game, Lawson took a reverse pitch and passed to Danny Marshall, who had no defender within 30 yards of him. He legged it for an 80-yard score with a minute gone, accounting for nearly half of EV’s total offense in the game.

Later in the quarter, after a bad punt snap led to a safety, Lawson picked off Mendenhall and returned the interception 78 yards for a 14-2 lead. The Knights had only two more scoring opportunities.

Southridge rallied for a 16-14 halftime lead, taking just 1 minute, 33 seconds to cover 87 yards for the second score in the final 2:17 of the half. Mendenhall completed four passes in as many attempts for 69 yards and Stiles did the rest, scoring from the 3-yard line. He scored again 2 minutes into the final period before Anderson put the finishing touches on the win.

“We had some drives, but at some point we became one-dimensional,” said Fisher. “We couldn’t keep them honest enough with the run. But the kids played hard and it’s a tribute that they got here. To me the game was decided up front. We competed, but they had more bodies than we did.”

GSL-CBL crossovers

University 28, Walla Walla 24: The Titans (6-4) countered whatever the host Blue Devils (2-8) threw at them to win the season-ending non-league game. Behind 6-0, they took a 13-6 lead. Behind 18-13 in the fourth quarter, U-Hi scored twice to build a 28-18 advantage. Quarterback Danny Jordan scored twice on 1-yard sneaks and threw for 148 yards. Tyler Clifton and Tyler Carlson also had touchdown runs, Clifton a 25-yard fullback burst.

Shadle Park 34, Davis 6: The Highlander (3-7) got two first-half touchdowns by Andrew McCanna while building a 28-6 lead to beat the visiting Pirates (0-10) in the non-league nightcap at Albi Stadium. Shadle scored twice in each of the first two quarters as the Highlanders rushed for 357 yards. Three backs approached or gained more than 100 yards, including McCanna with 116 on 11 carries, Jacob Spitzer with 109 on 19 attempts and Kendall Washington, who carried 11 times for 97 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Chris Donohue threw for two more scores, one to McCanna.

Eastmont 14, Mt. Spokane 7: Jordan Osborn ran for a touchdown and threw for the winner as the visiting Wildcats (3-7) edged the host Wildcats (2-7) at Albi Stadium, ending the seasons of both. Osborn was 16 of 23 for 162 passing yards. Mt. Spokane had taken the early lead on a 33-yard Connor Haley first-quarter run.

Sunnyside 35, Rogers 13: The host Grizzlies (5-5) kept the Pirates (0-9) winless as quarterback Adrian Cantu passed for three touchdowns. Most of the scoring came in the fourth quarter, which began with Sunnyside ahead 14-0. Danny Alvarez rushed for 85 yards and a score and also had two touchdown receptions. Andrew Durant threw for 225 yards and two TDs. For Rogers, Cody Peterson had 125 yards receiving and rushed for a touchdown and Jacob Partridge had 91 receiving yards and a score.