East bests West
The annual East-West High School All-State Football Summer Classic at Central Valley lived up to its billing on a hot Thursday night. But for followers of the Greater Spokane League, the outcome was eerily familiar.
Ferris quarterback Jeff Minnerly orchestrated not one, but two comebacks with both arm and foot, the final one a 2-yard pass to Moses Lake’s Ryan Coulston with 13 seconds remaining in the East’s 17-14 victory.
The touchdown capped a 74-yard drive that began with 3 minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the game. In the first half Minnerly covered 93 yards in about the same amount of time to put the East ahead 10-7 before intermission.
For that, the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder was named the East Most Valuable Player.
“I didn’t need the MVP or want the MVP,” Minnerly said afterward. “I just wanted to win. I’m just happy we got that. That was a heckuva way to win the ball game.”
And it was a heckuva a game played in front of a capacity crowd that coordinator Rick Giampietri estimated in excess of 3,500.
The West struck first, covering 75 yards in a hurry on its second possession. Bothell quarterback John Hecker completed a pair of passes for 31 yards and West Seattle speedster Juston Leverette did the rest, leaving defenders grasping on a 28-yard scamper and 7-0 lead 5 minutes into the game.
The second quarter belonged to Minnerly, who passed for 60 yards and rushed for 18 more. His first series positioned Gonzaga Prep’s Mat Barker for a 39-yard field goal. Then he bailed out Saxons teammate McKenzie Murphy, who fielded Hecker’s 51-yard punt at the 7-yard line.
He hit Coulston for 20 yards, Mt. Tahoma’s Gino Munoz for 14, scrambled for 12 before a perfectly lobbed 20-yard fade to Munoz put the East ahead with 28 seconds left until the half.
“It was kind of a whole bunch of broken plays,” Minnerly said. “I was just trying to make something happen.”
The second half was a carbon copy of the first, with the West controlling the third quarter and regaining the lead. Eastlake quarterback Ryan Robinson found a wide-open Dustin Adams and the Lake Stevens receiver raced 20 yards for the 14-10 lead.
But in the fourth quarter, Minnerly amassed 119 yards of total offense. Twice he got help from Munoz, who made brilliant catches, one of 38 yards when he split two defenders to get to the ball, and the other of 37 yards on a laser over the middle on the winning drive.
“It helped having a lot of good receivers to go to,” said Minnerly, who finished with 180 yards passing and 31 more on the ground. “I was comfortable going to every one of my guys.”
He hit Coulston on a must 18-yarder with less than 25 seconds remaining before finding him on what East coach Dave Carson said was the team’s two-point conversion play.
“What can I say?” said Carson, recently retired as coach at G-Prep. “I’ve watched him for two years and he has a great knack for making plays. And Gino made some nice catches.”
The West MVP was defensive end Jake Rouser from Oak Harbor, who was in on numerous first-half tackles and had two sacks.
“I was just honored to be here,” said the Idaho State-bound athlete. “I wasn’t fully expecting it. Winning MVP was totally crazy. It’s an honor.”
He said the East figured him out a bit in the second half and he got burned on a couple of bootlegs that factored mightily in the victors’ passing game.
West coach Tom Bainter said some execution miscues and a missed 40-yard field goal at the start of the fourth quarter spelled the difference in a game between two even teams.
“It was a great high school football game,” said the Bothell head coach. “I think when you put together a group of talented young men on both sides, I think this is what you look for – a close game that goes down to the wire. There’s no winner or loser, we just fell a little short.”