Mead ousts Bears

In a Greater Spokane League overtime tiebreaker football playoff game in which place-kicking figured to play a part and did, Chase Collings’ leg swung true.

Mead’s kicker converted a 41-yard field goal for a 10-7 victory over Central Valley Friday night at Albi Stadium in the second overtime of the Kansas tiebreaker playoff.

The playoff between teams that were part of a three-way tie for second-place in the Greater Spokane League, decided the third spot in Saturday’s state preliminary playoff games against teams from the Columbia Basin League.

Collings’ kick came after CV had missed a field-goal attempt from 37 yards out, bringing a sudden and crushing end for a team that had played so well during a 7-2 season.

“(CV coach) Rick (Giampietri) and I have been friends throughout,” said Mead coach Sean Carty. “Neither of us wanted to be here tonight and take this loss. It’s tough on kids who played well enough to earn a playoff spot. They played well all season. It’s too bad it had to end like that for them.”

CV won the opening toss and elected to play defense on the tiebreaker, which begins at the opponent’s 25-yard line. A Mead team expecting to have to pass found its running game as Seth Moore and Scott Fulkerson had back-to-back 8-yard gains.

“We saw CV shut down some pretty good running teams and really came in thinking we had to pass,” said Carty. “One play we called was either pass or run. When we saw them playing soft we decided to run it and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, maybe we don’t have to pass.’ “

But pass they did. Following a couple of more Moore carries, Glen Reser hit Fulkerson from the 5-yard line for the score.

The Bears took their turn and immediately were set back 2 yards on a crushing hit by Todd Loncosty.

But quarterback Blake Bledsoe found Brad Whitley for a 14-yard third-down completion to keep the drive going. In three plays CV punched it in, with Whitley scoring from the 1.

The series proved costly when CV running back Taylor Price injured his knee and was done.

The second overtime started with the Bears on offense. They gained just 5 yards and kicker Connor Janhunen hooked the ball to the left on a field-goal try.

Mead went right back to the ground, but had a 9-yard run nullified by a hold and was pushed back to the 29.

On third down, Reser hit Ryan LaForte for 5 yards and then turned the game over to Collings, who was a perfect 7 for 7 during the regular season. He powered the ball, driving it through the uprights.

“That holding call made us nervous,” said Carty, after hugging Collings and telling him he knew he was going to make it. “But Chase finished it off for us.”

Loncosty, an anchor of Mead’s defense, talked about the pressure of playing nearly entirely in the red zone.

“We knew it was going to be intense and knew we had to come out strong,” he said. “We knew we had to bring it to the table tonight, knew we had to hang together through the hard times and win.”

The entire playoff format took 20 minutes to decide an important outcome between teams vying for the state playoffs.

“We’re going to look at it,” said Carty, of the Kansas tiebreaker as a postseason playoff determinant. “If there are only two teams in it, it seems a pretty tough way to go. If there are three or more teams it seems reasonable.”

He said the alternative could be some version of a game, or a tiebreaker that begins at the 45 and works its way closer as the playoff continues.

“We should look at it. It doesn’t seem right that teams who worked so hard should finish like that,” he said.

Mead travels to Columbia Basin League champion Wenatchee on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game. Also Saturday, GSL champ Ferris hosts Moses Lake at 1 p.m. at Albi Stadium, and both leagues’ No. 2 finishers square off when Lewis and Clark travels to Richland at 4 p.m.

“I’ve only seen one game on Wenatchee and they looked pretty darn good,” said Carty. “The CBL is never an easy league.”