Missed seasons pay off for J.D. Peterson

It took just two minutes to define the University High football season.

Two minutes to turn a squad that lost its first three games of the season into a playoff team that was defeated 49-6 by top-ranked Pasco Tuesday night.

The Titans already had reversed their course, winning four straight games to sit a game above .500 going into a showdown with Lewis and Clark. Picked to finish 10th in a preseason poll, University faced a crossroads: Would the Titans take their game to the next level, or would they settle for merely overachieving?

Trailing 7-3, the Titans turned to their two-minute drill at the end of the second quarter, driving 80 yards in the final 1:50 of the half to take the lead in a game they ultimately won, 17-14.

“I think that’s where it all came together,” senior quarterback J.D. Peterson said. “Up till then, we’d run the two-minute drill every day in practice, but we’d never run it that well. This time, everything just clicked.

“It all just clicked. When you can get two of their linebackers to run into each other before the snap, you’re doing something right.”

Peterson’s senior season is a turnaround in itself.

Tabbed for a year of seasoning running the University junior varsity as a sophomore, Peterson broke his collarbone in his first game and was lost for the season.

“My sophomore year, the coaches were telling me that I was the future of the team,” he said. “They had pretty high expectations for me.

“But I missed my whole JV season, and for a quarterback, that’s a very important season. The good thing is I got to be on the sideline and learn from Travis Hill, who had a great year.”

As a junior, Peterson was unable to wrest the starting job away from Ryan Smallfoot, who started for the junior varsity in his absence.

“Last year I wasn’t quite ready,” he said. “Physically, talent wise, I was ready. But when it came to reading defenses, mentally I wasn’t ready.

“But it all paid off this year.”

A year ago, University struggled through an injury-plagued season that left the team scrambling to fill holes all season long.

This year, the team started off on the same footing, losing starting running back Kris O’Connor for the first three games – losses to Coeur d’Alene’s Lake City, Ferris and Mead.

“I think once we got everyone back, and playing in front of the home crowd, we turned things around. That kick started the string of six (wins) in a row. That got our confidence going and got us believing in our ability and our system.”

The Titans got their first win by upsetting previously unbeaten Clarkston at home, sparking a run of six straight wins, including the pivotal win over Lewis and Clark.

University finished the season 6-2 in league, dropping a 28-7 decision to Gonzaga Prep in the Greater Spokane League championship game last Thursday.

What makes the Titans offense run is its balance, Peterson said.

O’Connor gives the team a power running back, which sets up Peterson’s passing game and a slate of outstanding receivers.

“I just thought that if we had a healthy Kris O’Connor we’d be OK,” Peterson said. “We knew we had a good receiving corps, and we knew that other schools wouldn’t know that we had a good receiving corps.”

O’Connor rushed for 770 yards and 10 touchdowns. Peterson finished second in the league in passing, completing 108 of 194 passes for 1,186 yards and nine touchdowns. Matt Hanna, a basketball player turned first-time football player, led the league in receiving, pulling in 39 balls totaling 500 yards, 12.8 yards per catch, good for a half-dozen touchdowns. Alex Yerges, last year’s starter at running back, also finished among the league leaders, pulling in 27 passes, averaging 11.4 yards per reception.

“They’re all different types of receivers,” Peterson said. “With Hanna, all you have to do is put the ball up there and he’ll go get it. He’s really athletic. I think one-on-one, in a jump ball situation, he’s better than anyone in the league. I know that, if I don’t under throw him, he’s going to get it.”

Yergas, he said, is a perfect complement.

“He’s so quick – I think he runs the slant better than anyone in the league,” Peterson said. “We have a new receivers coach this year, and he brought in a little bubble screen that we like to run. We get the ball to Yergas, and he just runs over people.”