EV complete success

For one of the few times this year, East Valley put the finishing touches on a Greater Spokane League football game. The result was a 24-0 whitewash of visiting Lewis and Clark.

The Knights, now 5-2 in the GSL, have allowed only one touchdown and a total of 13 points in the first half all year. The two losses attest that second halves haven’t gone as well.

Friday night’s game was different. EV dominated all facets of the game from start to finish and tied the Tigers (5-2) for third place in league.

“We did a better job of finishing off,” said coach Adam Fisher. “And it was our best defensive performance by far this year.”

The Knights held LC to just 133 yards of total offense and the Tigers had only one serious opportunity to score in the game. With EV ahead 10-0 early in the third quarter, Alex Shaw blocked a punt to set LC up at EV’s 28-yard line.

But a 10-yard loss on its first scrimmage play set the Tigers back and a resultant 36-yard field-goal attempt hit the left upright.

“That,” said Fisher, “was huge.”

But not the only big play.

Late in the second period the Tigers lost a fumble and Josh Pollelo kicked a 50-yard field goal that just cleared the crossbar as time expired. He had made only 4 of 12 prior attempts and had never made one longer than 37 yards.

“To make it 10-0 at half was really big,” said Fisher. “It was a confidence booster for everything.”

The third key play was a 15-yard touchdown pass from Russell Woodworth to Cole Abramson making the score 17-0 with 8:14 to play. It came on the second play following a bad LC punt snap.

“They played awfully well and we made sure we kept them in it,” said LC coach Tom Yearout.

EV had given its foe a heavy dose of isolation dives that netted 258 rushing yards in the game. But it wasn’t until Ryan Campbell’s 16-yard burst with 9:37 remaining in the second quarter that his team was up 7-0.

Knights linebacker-fullback Tanner Hamilton called the teams mirror images of each other. But EV got the better of it on both sides of the ball and he was a big part of EV’s defense.

“We’ve already made our playoffs and these games don’t matter much for what we’re going for,” Hamilton said. “But we just said we want to win from here on out.”

Central Valley 38, Shadle Park 28: An interception by Sean Thompson in the second quarter was a game-changing play for the Bears (3-4 overall, 3-3 in the GSL) against the Highlanders (1-6, 1-5).

Tied 14-14, CV went on to score 24 unanswered points. The Bears rushed for 357 yards (they gave up 281) with Shon Davis gaining 148 on 28 attempts, Tyler Cochran 98 on nine and Brad Whitley racing 79 yards for a TD on his only carry.

Shadle’s Justin Oliveri carried three times for 88 yards and two TDs.

North Central 23, Rogers 12: The Indians (1-6, 1-5) scored 16 second-half points, the final touchdown coming in the game’s final minute, to stave off the Pirates (0-6).

Rogers had led 12-7 into the third quarter before NC sophomore Nick Roark scored his second of three touchdowns.

Roark gained 151 yards on 16 rushes and Pirates sophomore Cody Peterson rushed 21 times for 150 yards.