Colville OT experience pays off with state berth

Colville’s Randy Cornwell had never seen anything like this in his 30-year football coaching career.

His Indians have played five overtime games in the past 11 they’ve played.

“It’s just the craziest thing,” he said. “What are the odds, considering all the circumstances, for that many to end in a tie?”

Colville lost to Othello, its first-round State 2A opponent again this weekend, in overtime to end the season a year ago. This year the Indians were involved in four Great Northern League overtime games, the first three in a row.

They lost to Cheney and West Valley, then beat Clarkston in double overtime. Thursday’s OT win over Deer Park secured the GNL’s second state berth.

“When we lost the first two in overtime, the thought was setting in, ‘What’s the next thing that can go wrong?’ ” Cornwell said.

Now, he said, the team has this overtime routine figured out.

“The last two were come-from-behind games. We were down 14-0 in the second half both times,” he said. “Against Deer Park we scored to tie with no time left (in regulation).”

Going in to the final GNL games of the season, three teams had a shot at the second state playoff spot. If Deer Park had won, the Stags were in. The only way Colville could get in was with a victory and win by West Valley over Cheney.

Indians partisans kept a watch on both games, happy that the Eagles led, despairing that Colville trailed. The Eagles won 14-0, the Indians rallied.

“We gave (WV) a big cheer in the locker room afterward,” Cornwell said. “We had 200 people on the field celebrating.”

The only other time a Cornwell team played an overtime game was in 1991, when his Troy squad beat Cut Bank for a Montana state title. Now he’s an old hand at it.

Price is right

After recovering from surgery to repair anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments plus meniscus damaged a year ago, Central Valley’s Taylor Price was back in the lineup this year, but solely on offense.

In part, he said, it was to protect the knee as well as complementing fellow running back Tyler Simmet. Turns out, Price has become invaluable on the other side of the ball late this season.

“Simmet stepped up and I told the coaches I wanted to get back on defense,” Price said following CV’s 35-20 victory over Richland to advance to the state playoffs Saturday in Kennewick.

Injuries necessitated his return. He played some against Gonzaga Prep, and versus Mead had a huge game, recording 14 tackles, coach Rick Giampietri said. His presence was felt again in the contest against the Bombers. Late in the game, Price simply blew through Hayden Hilty with a spectacular collision fit for highlight tape. It could be heard high up in the press box and ended the quarterback’s night.

“I like defense more,” he said. “I was only doing what the coaches thought best.”

State soccer begins

Upstarts East Valley and Shadle Park are among four Greater Spokane League representatives to the State 3A and 4A soccer tournaments, which begin today.

The Knights host Shorecrest (15-3-2, fourth in the Wesco South Division), 6 p.m. at Albi Stadium. Shadle Park is at Olympic (12-4) in Silverdale at 3 p.m. in the 3A state first round.

4A district champion Mead (16-1) opens the Albi doubleheader at 4 p.m. against Kamiak (9-6-3, third in the Wesco South) and Gonzaga Prep (14-3) is in Pasco (14-3) for a 7 p.m. match.

Like GSL football, which last week swept every state qualifying and crossover game against Columbia Basin Big Nine League teams, the GSL has the maximum number of state entries in soccer.

The Knights (9-7) are the region’s No. 1 3A seed after knocking off perennial power West Valley-Yakima 1-0 and beating the Highlanders (6-10) in a shootout for the second time this year. Shadle stunned Mt. Spokane twice, 2-1, in the postseason to also qualify for state.

During the year EV and Shadle had 4-6 GSL records. Mt. Spokane was third in league at 7-3.

Long time coming

Central Valley’s third-place girls state trophy at last weekend’s State 4A cross country meet was its first since the Bears won the title in 1982. And it was the first since Dennis McGuire was coach.

CV was sixth in 1993 and had four finishes between fifth and seventh since 2000, McGuire said.

“It’s nice to come home with something, especially how intense the last five weeks of the season were,” McGuire said.

Victories in the final two Greater Spokane League meets gave the Bears first place, and then they won district and regional races to advance to Pasco. For the first time Saturday, four Bears finished under 20 minutes at state. Included were freshmen Jamie Lambie, 35th in 19:35, and Leah Amsden (19:47) and sophomore Madi Barnes (19:48). Another regular, usual No. 4 finisher Josie Warner, was ill and didn’t compete, but opened the door for fourth-year runner Ari Rios to enter the lineup for one last race and become the team’s fifth scorer.

Winning trophies isn’t the criterion by which McGuire judges the worth of a season, he said, “but it is a great feeling to bring home a state award. We’re ecstatic.”