Complete effort

The Ferris Saxons showed once again why they are the Greater Spokane League’s second-best defensive team. And they weren’t too shabby on the other side of the football either.

By playing a game so complete, they dismantled University 35-14 Thursday night at Joe Albi Stadium and are a virtual lock for a state play-in game.

Ferris (6-1, 5-1) has two GSL games remaining, next week at Central Valley and a week later against winless Rogers. A win in either will secure one of three spots in the 4A series against teams from the Columbia Basin League.

“We’re in good shape, I know that,” said first-year coach Jim Sharkey, who has had playoff teams at his previous coaching stops. “We’d like to get that home (play-in) game now.”

The GSL champion and second-place finisher host the GSL-Columbia Basin League state qualifiers.

Thursday’s game between playoff contenders was flawed, the pair combining for eight turnovers.

But before that happened, the Saxons scored on three of four first-half possessions and missed a 28-yard field goal on the other. The first time the Saxons punted came with 9 seconds left until intermission.

By the end of the third quarter the score was 35-7 and the Saxons had controlled the football 17 minutes, 31 seconds of the 24-minute timeframe of the middle two quarters.

“We’ve been working hard on our running game,” Sharkey said. “I thought our zone blocking scheme and option game opened up some things.”

That was particularly the case as Ferris exploited U-Hi’s perimeter defense and finished with 434 yards of total offense.

McKenzie Murphy rushed for 149 yards on 23 carries. Quarterback Jeff Minnerly picked his way through openings for 44 yards more on 13 attempts. Murphy scored his team’s first four touchdowns.

That, coupled with Ferris’ 198 passing yards, including a Minnerly-to-Jared Karstetter hookup of 43 yards, made things look easy as the Saxons took a 14-0 lead with 3:02 still to play in the first quarter.

U-Hi answered with some pretty running by Tyler Carlson, who read Ferris’ pursuing defense four times, cutting his way for 62 of his game total 92 yards to set up the Titans’ first score before the quarter was ended.

After a time-consuming 61-yard drive came up empty with the field-goal miss, it took Ferris just three plays on its next possession to make it 21-7 before halftime. The teams traded interceptions in a little more than a minute to cap the half.

In the third quarter Ferris made it 28-7, set up by Karstetter’s reverse option pass that covered 44 yards.

After the teams swapped fumbles, Karstetter caught a Minnerly TD toss.

As for that defense, the Saxons stifled U-Hi, limiting the Titans to 96 first-half yards and 199 for the game.

The idea, said defensive line standout Pat Parham, has been “to play fast. Last year we weren’t fast. (Now) we rally to the ball every play and that’s what’s winning us games.”

Parham said he has been used as a defensive end against option teams and nose guard against teams that run up the middle. His two sacks of Titans quarterback Danny Jordan led to Ferris’ fourth TD.

“This is huge,” he said. “We didn’t make the playoffs last year and we should have. We just didn’t play as hard as we should.”

That hasn’t been the case for a team now tied for second place.