Landon Taylor late punt return TD lifts Clarkston over Shadle Park for at least share of GSL 2A title

This late in the football season, every game has significant meaning.

On Saturday, Shadle Park knew what was at stake: Win and get crowned as the Greater Spokane League 2A champion – and receive a bye past the crossover round and qualify for state.

Clarkston had other things in mind. A Bantams win would ensure at least a share of the league title and perhaps set up a Kansas tiebreaker the Tuesday after the regular season for the automatic bid and seeding of the second- and third-place teams.

Senior Landon Taylor returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown with less than 3 minutes to play, the Clarkston defense held late, and the Bantams beat the Highlanders 24-17 at University HS.

Clarkston (6-2, 5-1) plays a nonleague game next week, while Shadle Park (5-3, 4-1) hosts East Valley. If the Highlanders and West Valley (6-2, 4-1) both win next week, the tiebreaker will be required to settle matters.

Clarkston lost to Shadle Park last season after leading 21-7 at halftime and finished second to the Highlanders.

“It’s just one of those deals where we wanted to come back and we wanted to play a great game – and today was a great game,” Clarkston coach Brycen Bye said.

“It’s really exciting,” junior receiver Mason Brown said. “We were the underdogs coming up here and now we’ll get a share of the league championship. It feels real good.”

Shadle Park’s Beckett Ensminger carried 31 times for 120 yards and had five catches for 25 yards. Natreven Dickerson completed 19 of 31 passes for 200 yards with two touchdowns.

“Clarkson’s a good program,” Shadle Park coach Jim Mace said. “Beginning of the year, I figured they were the team to beat, and they’ve proven to be that.

“Hoping that we do our part, West Valley does their part, and we have a little Kansas tiebreaker to get that top seed, which is huge this year.”

Carter Steinwand (16 of 20, 149 yards) connected with Brown (six catches, 96 yards) on a 17-yard touchdown pass to tie it at 17 with 4 minutes, 33 seconds remaining.

The Bantams then forced a three-and-out. Ensminger’s punt carried to the Clarkston 26, where Taylor collected it. He made the first tackler miss, broke to the outside and weaved his way down the sideline for a touchdown and 24-17 lead with 2:52 left.

“I honestly saw our offense was just turned around blocking for me. It opened a really nice lane,” Taylor said. “I just hit it as hard as I could. People blocking for me, cut a couple of times and there was the end zone.”

“Landon’s dangerous when he’s got the ball in his hands,” Bye said. “They took him away on offense, but you can’t take him away all the time.”

After Taylor’s score, Shadle got the ball back at its 40. The Highlanders quickly moved up field, converting a pair of fourth downs, and eventually had first-and-goal at the 10 with 30 seconds to play.

A swing pass to Ensminger resulted in 1 yard, and on fourth-and-goal at the 9, Dickerson’s pass intended for Jordan Dever – his only play of the second half due to injury – was broken up.

“They got a running back they just feel good handing the ball to anytime,” Bye said of Ensminger. “But we knew that they would eventually have to throw the ball.

“We had a couple players make some plays and just hats off to our ‘D’ for bending, not breaking really.”

On Clarkston’s second possession of the game, Taylor nailed a 25-yard field goal to give the Bantams a 3-0 lead. Midway through the second quarter, the Highlanders tied it on Memphis Lake’s 22-yard field goal.

Brown scored on a counter play with 19 seconds left in the half and Clarkston led 10-3 .

In the third quarter, Shadle receiver Kam Odell got behind the secondary and Dickerson hit him in stride for a 42-yard touchdown pass to tie it.

After a punt, Shadle got the ball back at its 8 and worked its way to the Clarkston 30, where Dickerson lobbed it down the sideline to Joey Barber for a TD that made it 17-10 at the end of the third quarter.

Both teams missed big parts of their offenses.

Clarkston’s leading rusher, Ikaika Millan, missed the game with an ankle injury sustained on the last play of last week’s game. Dever was injured on the last play of the first half making a tackle after an interception and finished with three catches for 28 yards.