Saxons come through

For the better part of a half on Friday night Ferris found itself struggling in its Greater Spokane League football game at Gonzaga Prep.

But then the undefeated Saxons made a sterling goal-line stand and later covered 70 yards in a hurry to prick the inspired Bullpups’ upset-bid balloon en route to a 33-10 triumph.

“We’re the senior team in the league and I think they showed it,” said Ferris coach Jim Sharkey. “They didn’t panic. I think the kids handled adversity well.”

Adversity came in the form of G-Prep’s ball-control plan that consumed time and kept the Saxons offense off the field.

Featured was the return of battering-ram fullback Jeremy Condon from injury. He was complemented by the rushing of quarterback Brian Karwacki, and the Bullpups (3-2, 2-2) got another big play by receiver Jimmy Wilson.

After falling behind early, G-Prep held the football for most of the half, scoring on wide-open Wilson’s 57-yard pass reception with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

They had another long drive and a first-and-goal at the Ferris 5-yard-line, but the Saxons (5-0, 4-0) defense stiffened.

But when Mat Barker added a 42-yard field goal with 1:01 to play before intermission, Gonzaga led 10-7 and had piled up 197 yards of offense, with Condon and Karwacki teaming to rush for 106. The duo finished with 33 carries and 138 yards with Condon getting 86.

“Getting (Condon) back at fullback was big for them,” said Sharkey. “He really played well and I thought they had a nice game plan. They came out and did a few different things.”

By contrast, the Saxons had only 101 yards total at that point, 73 that on a game-opening touchdown march culminated by a 31-yard dash by McKenzie Murphy.

“Their offense did a great job of keeping our offense off the field, so it was kind of frustrating from that standpoint,” said Ferris quarterback Jeff Minnerly, who helped erased the deficit in a flash in a half-ending 70-yard drive that took just 54 seconds.

“The first play, the coaches wanted to give the ball to Murph,” Minnerly said. “We weren’t sure we were going to try and score. Murph made a big play and after that we marched downfield.”

Following Murphy’s 16-yard burst, Minnerly completed four passes including one to Jared Karstetter for a 15-yard score and a 14-10 halftime lead.

G-Prep used up half of the third quarter on a drive that came up empty. The Saxons used up most of the rest of the quarter and scored twice in the final 1:09 of the period for a 27-10 lead that put the game away.

They covered 80 yards that included five Minnerly runs and four completions to set up the first score. Goal-line quarterback Shawn Stockton took it in. The Saxons then recovered a fumble that led to Minnerly’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Garret Saiki.

The final score came mainly through the efforts of Murphy, who ran four straight times, the latter covering 12 yards five minutes into the final period. He finished with 92 yards on nine carries.

“We got everything going well,” he said of Ferris’ 198-yard rushing night. “The line opened up a lot of holes and a lot of downfield blocking helped me.”

Minnerly added 40 yards rushing and threw for 174 with a finally healthy Karstetter his main target early.

“We talked before the game about getting the ball to the big guy tonight and let him get some big plays,” said Sharkey.

Mt. Spokane 23, Rogers 21: The Pirates’ (0-4, 0-4) bid to end a long losing streak came up agonizingly short. They led 21-10 at intermission and had Wildcats (1-4, 1-4) quarterback Connor Haley bottled up behind the line on fourth-and-4. But Haley got outside and scored the winning TD from 18 yards with less than 2 minutes remaining. Brandon Jared scored twice and rushed for 177 yards. Haley added 106. Rogers’ Cody Peterson gained 218 yards on 17 carries, scoring three times. Included were runs of 63 and 69 yards.

LC 36, Shadle Park 12: Ahead 10-6 in the second quarter, the Tigers (4-1, 4-1) scored three times against the Highlanders (1-4, 1-3). One came when Jordan Rothstrom recovered an LC fumble in the end zone and another on Doug Talkington’s 24-yard interception. Alex Shaw rushed 16 times for 177 yards and scored two touchdowns, one an early-game 77-yarder. He had another 77-yard TD called back.

CV 42, EV 0: The Bears (4-1, 4-1) piled up 378 yards on the ground against the Knights (2-3, 2-3) and allowed just 22 (and 102 yards total). Taylor Price rushed 19 times for 154 yards, Tyler Cochran and Brad Whitley divided up 167 more.