Freeman defeated 10-6
Freeman lost its arm when senior quarterback Andrew Dresback suffered a mild separation to his throwing shoulder two weeks ago.
Still, the Scotties managed a win over Colfax last week to earn the Northeast A League’s No. 1 seed and home field for its state tournament play-in game with Omak Friday night at Freeman High.
But Freeman lost its most explosive legs when top rusher Chris Davis was suspended for the game for what coach Jim Wood called “personal reasons.”
As a result, the Scotties, 8-1 going into the game, dropped a 10-6 heartbreaker to the Pioneers from the Caribou Trail League, who evened their record at 5-5 with the victory.
“I don’t want to make any excuses at all,” Wood said. “If we could have thrown the ball deep a little more, we probably could have put the game away early on. But we couldn’t do that.
“The conditions were wet and sloppy, but it was that way for both teams. No excuses.”
The Freeman defense limited Omak to just three first downs in the game, but seven turnovers – four fumbles and three interceptions – undermined a grind-it-out offense that out-gained Omak 255 to 145 yards.
The gutsy Dresback, who played last week despite the injury and was cleared to begin throwing before Thursday’s practice, threw sparingly and with mixed results. He threw effectively on short passes, but his attempts to throw deep floated and resulted in no downfield completions and two interceptions.
Freeman took the lead 21/2 minutes into the game. The Scotties stopped Omak without a first down on its first series and the Pioneers’ punt gained 2 net yards, setting up a first down at the 30.
Two plays later, senior Josh Altmeyer, starting in Davis’ place, blew through a huge hole at the line of scrimmage and scampered 15 yards for a touchdown. But as a preview of problems to come, the Scotties fumbled the snap on the kick attempt to hold just a 6-0 lead.
Omak did its scoring in the second quarter.
After a Freeman drive stalled on the Omak 13, the Pioneers engineered their only long drive of the game, highlighted by a 78-yard reverse by slotback Michael Bush, setting up a first down at the Freeman 3.
The Scotties defense pushed Omak back 4 yards, forcing the visitors to boot a 27-yard field goal to cut the Freeman lead by half.
After the Omak kickoff went out of bounds, the Scotties took over at their own 35, but fumbled the center-quarterback exchange on its second play, turning the ball over for the first of four times in the game.
Omak quarterback Brandon Ray found Drew Walter at the 11 for an 18-yard gain and running back Travis Dahlin found a seam along the sideline and squirted into the end zone to give the Pioneers the lead and, ultimately, the game.
Omak advances to play the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between Wahluke (6-4) and Goldendale (8-2) at Goldendale.