Rogers football qualifies for state for first time since 2015; wins three-way tiebreaker with West Valley, Shadle Park

For the third year in a row, the Greater Spokane League 2A division needed a three-way tiebreaker to determine its representatives to the state playoffs.

With Clarkston earning the league championship and only two bids to state, the “Kansas” tiebreaker was to eliminate two of the three second-place participants and determine the remaining lone playoff berth.

So West Valley, Shadle Park and Rogers settled in for two mini-games consisting of two 10-minute halves.

When the dust settled, Rogers claimed the second playoff spot, its first state playoff berth since 2015, sending the others to Week 10 nonplayoff crossovers.

Rogers 7, West Valley 3: Senior Hartman Warrick scored the lone touchdown, a 41-yard catch-and-run late in the first half, and the Pirates beat the Eagles in the second mini-game to earn the second GSL 2A playoff spot.

“We’ve been waiting for this for years,” Warrick said. “We’ve been working our tails off every day in practice, in every game, man. I’m just happy that we got to come out here and shine and do what we do best.”

“No doubt. No question in my mind,” senior Aaron Kinsey said. “I knew we were gonna get here.”

“It feels amazing man. It feels great,” Rogers first-year coach Ryan Cole said. “There’s just no quit in this team. We just fight, we fight, we fight. I know last week we didn’t have our destiny in our hands. We needed something to happen, and it did. And today we had our destiny in our hands, and we made it happen.”

Rogers ran just 14 plays on offense in the mini-game.

“We talked about it,” Cole said. “Essentially, it’s half a game of football. We told the boys, ‘In a regular game every single play counts. So in a game like this, every play is twice as important.’ We made them count.”

West Valley started the game at its 26 and quarterback Ethan Turley hit the corner and went 54 yards to the Rogers 27. A 20-yard Turley run put it at the 9, but the Eagles had to settle for a 17-yard field goal by Nathan Jeffries.

Rogers fumbled the kickoff and WV got it back at the 21 but turned it over on downs.

Kinsey went around left end for 28 yards then Jacob Proctor hit Warrick in stride down the right sideline for a 7-3 lead with 1:42 left in the first half.

“Great ball by my quarterback,” Warrick said. “I was just so turnt.”

Turley hit Parker Munns on two long pass completions to get back into Rogers territory, but on fourth-and-9 at the 16, Ja’Shon Moore broke up a pass intended for Munns in the back of the end zone.

“They hit a couple of big plays, but we weren’t worried about it,” Kinsey said. “We were down for a quick second, but we know how to face adversity. Got punched in the mouth but got right back up.”

Rogers went three-and-out to start the second half and West Valley took over at its 25, but Turley was hit while throwing and Jerry Allen intercepted at the WV 45. The drive stalled, and Aiden Cain’s punt was downed at the 1 with 2:28 left.

The Eagles moved out to midfield, but Turley’s fourth-down screen pass was knocked down by a lineman and Rogers took the victory formation.

“Nobody believed in us, but us and God,” Kinsey said.

West Valley 14, Shadle Park 0: Turley ran for one touchdown and threw for another and the Eagles eliminated the Highlanders in the first game.

Turley carried seven times for 71 yards and completed 1 of 3 passes for a 31-yard touchdown. Tyson Mogan carried 15 times for 65 yards.

West Valley took the opening kick at its 40 and used a nine-play drive to reach paydirt, with Turley taking a sweep for the last 15 yards and a touchdown.

Mogan carried seven times for 45 yards on the drive.

The Eagles forced a three-and-out and got the ball back at its 46. Seven plays later, Turley rolled left and hit Levi Barham on a short in. Barham broke a tackle and raced 31 yards for a TD and 14-0 lead with 9 seconds left in the first half.

On its first possession of the second half, Shadle was faced with fourth-and-6 at the WV 32, but a Kaden Hooper pass fell incomplete and Shadle turned it over on downs.

On the next drive, Shadle had fourth-and-7 at the 10 with 5 minutes to go, but another incomplete pass turned it over again. Turley then went off-tackle for a 48-yard gain into Shadle territory.

Presented with one final opportunity, Shadle went four-and-out and gave the ball back with just over 1 minute to play.

Hooper finished 5 for 17 for 36 yards.