Ferris on wrong side of chance
Ferris head football coach Jim Sharkey gambled and lost Saturday as the Saxons failed on a two-point conversion late in the game and missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 14-13 loss against the Moses Lake Chiefs at Albi Stadium.
The state-qualifying game matched the respective No. 2 seeds from the Greater Spokane and Columbia Basin leagues.
Moses Lake (7-3) will play at GSL regular-season champion Gonzaga Prep on Saturday in the first round of the State 4A playoffs. Ferris’ season ended at 8-2.
The Chiefs nearly gave away the game after a botched snap sailed over the head of punter Aaron Wager and gave Ferris possession at Moses Lake’s 29 with 5 seconds remaining.
Moments after hurriedly running onto the field, however, Ferris place-kicker Dexter Belling came up short on his 46-yard attempt as time expired.
“It happens,” Sharkey said of the irregular finish. “It’s high school football.”
How the game reached that point was equally remarkable. Moses Lake’s 14-0 lead nearly evaporated as Ferris scored two touchdowns in a 3-minute span late in the fourth quarter.
Instead of booting an extra point after the Saxons’ second touchdown that would have sent the game into overtime, Sharkey instead tried to steal the victory.
A roughing-the-passer penalty was assessed against the Chiefs after Ferris quarterback Jeff Minnerly threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jared Karstetter to pull the Saxons within 14-13 with 1:29 remaining.
The officials marked the ball 11/2 yards from the goal line, and Sharkey called his decision to go for the triumph “a no-brainer.”
The difference between Sharkey being labeled a genius or otherwise ultimately came down to 1 yard. Minnerly located Andrew Weigand with a pass in the right flat, but Chiefs defensive back Ryan Carpenter dragged him down at the 1 to preserve the Moses Lake victory.
“We had a yard and a half to go, and I feel like if we can’t get a yard and a half, we don’t deserve to win the ballgame,” Sharkey said. “It wasn’t a tough decision. I had contemplated going for the two even from the 3. And there’s no guarantee that our kicker would have made the (extra point) anyway.
“If I have a yard and a half to go in that situation, I’ll go for it every time.”
It was the second of the Chiefs’ two crucial goal-line stands. Moses Lake maintained a 7-0 lead when it stopped Ferris on downs inside the 1 in the second quarter.
“We just didn’t score,” Minnerly said. “We didn’t get 1 yard when we needed it.”
Moses Lake took an early lead on Benjamin Waites’ 26-yard touchdown pass to Seth Bruneel with 3:39 left in the opening quarter. The Chiefs extended that cushion to 14-0 with 6:47 left in the game when Waites rolled around the right side for a 1-yard touchdown run.
The teams quickly swapped turnovers before Minnerly’s 11-yard strike to Karstetter cut the Saxons’ deficit to 14-7 with 4:32 remaining.
Ferris’ Andre Rivera recovered the ensuing onside kick, and Minnerly drove the Saxons 48 yards in nine plays before his second touchdown pass to Karstetter.