Lee, WV take 32-14 win over Clarkston

Austin Lee refused to take any credit after he took visiting Clarkston to the woodshed in a Great Northern League football game Friday night.

By halftime, the West Valley junior quarterback had accounted for 182 yards of total offense and all 25 first-half points en route to a 32-14 victory.

But when told he’d scored twice rushing, gaining more than 72 yards, and thrown touchdown passes of 35 and 56 yards, Lee admitted, “that was a pretty good half. I couldn’t have done it without the other 10 players on the field.”

Sophomore Tevin Duke went high over the top of a defender for a spectacular catch and the first TD. He also hauled in the 56-yarder.

Speedy sophomore Zach Herford capped the Eagles’ scoring with a nifty 38-yard run, sneaking around in the crowd of players until working his way outside and sprinting away for a 32-0 lead.

Defensively the Eagles (2-3, 1-1) did their job as well. Clarkston (1-4, 0-2) managed just 122 yards of offense through three quarters, picking up two garbage-time touchdowns in the final quarter.

“The defense was real salty,” West Valley coach Craig Whitney said of his team. “That’s how we wanted to play.”

Whitney pointed out that WV has only one senior on either side of the ball. Six of the regulars are sophomores.

“We were down a couple of running backs (due to injury),” Whitney said of his decision focus attention on Lee. “Last week at Colville we were down to our fifth-string running back. It kind of forced us to put more of a load on Austin.”

That also meant 6-foot-4, 230-pound lineman Jace Malek pulled No. 99 over his No. 70 jersey, moved to the backfield, and carried the ball seven times for 25 yards.