Colville, Cascade run games collide

When Colville football coach Randy Cornwell saw the final score of the Cascade-Zillah quarterfinal, he knew exactly what type of opponent his team would face in the semifinals.

Cascade handed Zillah its first loss, shutting down the Leopards 21-7 last week. That’s the same Zillah team that knocked defending State 1A champ Freeman out of the postseason earlier this month.

So when it was pointed out that Colville beat traditional playoff qualifier Royal handsomely 28-10, and Royal beat Cascade earlier this season, Cornwell didn’t spend any time thinking of comparative scores.

“Who can make sense of it all?” Cornwell asked. “Zillah beat Freeman and Cascade beat Zillah. That stands out more to us than the other games because we know how good Freeman is. We don’t put a lot of stock in comparative scores. You can turn those on their head any way you want.”

Cascade (8-3) takes on second-ranked Colville (11-0) this afternoon at Albi Stadium.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

Cornwell sees a team similar to his.

Colville’s base offense is the double-wing and Cascade’s is the Wing-T. The teams like to run so much that the game might be over in an hour.

“They want to control the football like we do,” Cornwell said. “The thing that jumps out to me is they’ve got speed at about four different positions.”

Colville has piled up a bunch of yards behind Colton Vining and Journy Young. They’ve combined for 2,282 yards and 33 touchdowns.

The Indians’ strength, though, is defense. Colville has allowed an average of 8.9 points per game.

“Our defense has been pretty stringy against the run,” Cornwell said.

Last week, the Indians were unlike themselves in the first half against Royal. They turned it around in the second half.

“We’re a mature team,” Cornwell said. “This is rare air for us but nobody is getting too giddy. Our seniors, they’re so focused.

“They’ve got a vision where they want to end up and this (Spokane) isn’t the place.”