Saxons stay on top

Halfway through its Greater Spokane League football game with Ferris Thursday night at Albi Stadium, Central Valley had the game and the Saxons where it wanted.

The Bears led 13-7, had momentum and would get the ball following intermission.

But in a game in which mistakes played a major factor for both teams, CV made the ones that ultimately stung most. Ferris capitalized on them and rallied in the second half for a 24-13 triumph to remain undefeated.

“We were fired up at halftime and were playing well, running the football well,” said Bears coach Rick Giampietri. “Then we turned the ball over in the second half and the air kind of went out of us.”

CV turned the ball over on three successive possessions and the Saxons scored on two of them to regain the upper hand, then ran off 7 minutes, 36 seconds of the fourth quarter before kicking a field goal with 2:06 remaining to seal the win.

With the win, Ferris is 8-0 overall, 7-0 in league and for all intents and purposes laid claim to its first title of the GSL era, with Rogers its final league foe. Coach Jim Sharkey willingly received the obligatory dousing from his team afterward.

“That’s a good sign,” he said. “You don’t get those when things are bad.”

A crowd of 3,250 fans were in attendance anticipating a close game that could have created a three-way first-place tie.

They weren’t disappointed. Momentum swung on penalties and turnovers, giving both teams hope. Sharkey said he even witnessed an uncharacteristic moment of panic in his charges when CV dominated the second quarter of the game.

Ferris had smartly marched 62 yards in eight plays for a 7-0 lead following the opening kickoff. But after a fumble recovery, an apparent touchdown strike from Jeff Minnerly to Jared Karstetter early in the second period was nullified by penalty. It was one of six in the first half for 62 yards that thwarted the Saxons.

A 15-yard sack and two more penalties later, the Saxons found themselves facing fourth-and-52. CV got the ball back and Blake Bledsoe connected with William Davis on a 48-yard pass to set up the tying touchdown.

Further Ferris penalties and an inspired Bears defense set up Connor Janhunen for a pair of field goals that generated the halftime lead and excitement.

“When the touchdown got called back we just really got out of sorts,” Sharkey said. “We weren’t ourselves and reverted back to some bad habits. I think in the first half they were flustered and I hadn’t seen them get that way. Some of the penalties were just uncharacteristic for us.”

There were several holds, intentional grounding and an offensive pass interference call on a catch by Karstetter that led to Janhunen’s first field goal.

“We just try to play through that kind of stuff,” Karstetter said. “It’s going to happen in every game and you have to battle back from adversity like that.”

The Saxons caught a break when Tyler Cochran lost a fumble on the second scrimmage play following intermission. Ferris scored in two plays, on Nate Tonani’s 16-yard run, to regain the lead.

“Getting the turnover right of the gate in the second half was huge,” Sharkey said. “Their guys run hard and sometimes the ball comes out when you’re fighting for yards.”

Following CV’s third turnover of the half, the Saxons moved 50 yards for their third score. Twice Minnerly hit Karstetter, including for the 11-yard score.

Minnerly ran for 65 yards, twice scrambling out of potential sacks, and he passed for 14 more on the final drive that used up most of the final quarter and produced Dexter Belling’s field goal to make it a two-score game.

“At halftime we talked about the two basics of football, blocking and tackling, and running the football again,” said Sharkey. “They did it better than us in the first half and we did it better than them in the second half. (The Bears) are a good football team and those defensive ends are the real deal. We went back to getting (running) downhill and hitting them quick because they have good speed off the end.”

Minnerly did much of it, rushing for most of his 100 yards after half. He also finished with 117 passing yards and two touchdowns, the first a 16-yarder to Shawn Stockton 3:25 into the game.

“They made some great plays on third down and got a couple of scrambles out of there,” Giampietri said. “The game got away from us.”