Mead defense forces six turnovers, Panthers beat Eastmont 31-10 in 4A Round of 32

The 4A district crossover with the Mid-Columbia Conference is a thing of the past. In its place, the Washington Football Coaches Association seeded the 32 qualifiers in a Week 10 elimination bracket in order to determine the 16-team state football playoffs. 

The Round of 32 is not officially part of the state tournament, but it is lose-and-go-home. And the matchups present a bit of a wildcard.

Mead entered its Round of 32 game on Friday ranked No. 7 by the state media poll, and 12th in the RPI system. The Panthers, second in the Greater Spokane League, were pitted against Eastmont, second in the Big 9 and 14th in the RPI.

At least the powers that be gave Mead the home game.

The Panthers used a stiff defense and took advantage of several turnovers to provide their offense with a short field for most of the game – and lived to fight another day. 

Keegan Mallon rushed for 94 yards with two touchdowns, quarterback JJ Leman rushed for a pair of scores, and the Panthers beat the Wildcats 31-10 to move onto the State Round of 16 at Union Stadium. 

“The biggest thing we fight for is to continue playing with the guys that we’ve got, Leman said. “So, it’s a great feeling being able to play another week.”

On defense, Mead (9-1) generated four turnovers, got stops on two fourth-down attempts and forced three punts. 

“The defense, I thought, played really well,” Mead coach Keith Stamps said. “(Eastmont) had one drive where they got to the edge on a couple times in the first half to score. But other than that, lot of good stops, a lot of big plays.”

“The defense did an amazing job,” Leman said. “They got three or four turnovers. I mean, you win a lot of football games when your defense does that to set the offense up.”

The Panthers defense set the tone early, forcing a three-and-out on Eastmont’s first possession. The offense marched 62 yards over 11 plays, culminated by Leman’s 7-yard touchdown run for an early 7-0 lead. 

“We’ve got a couple of read (option) plays,” Leman said. “We were reading a couple players. And it’s an option to me, keep it up the middle or give it to some of speedier guys on the outside.”

The Wildcats (7-3) fared better on their second drive. Peyton Zalinsky hit brother Austin for a 20-yard gain to midfield, and a 75-yard drive was capped by Payton Zalinsky’s 1-yard TD plunge to tie it. 

Leman hit Matt McShane for 36 to the Eastmont 21, then connected with Mallon for 13 yards to the 7. Two plays later, Mallon barreled in from the 1 for a 14-7 lead. 

Eastmont’s Austin Zelinsky was stripped on a counter and Mead linebacker Garrett Miller recovered at the Wildcats 43. Eight plays layer Leman took it in from the 7 to put the Panthers up two scores. 

“He’s a big part of our offense,” Stamps said of Leman. “You know, as people game plan to take somebody away, somebody opens up. And tonight, he had some he had some lanes into the other end zone, and he’s a tough runner on the goal line.”

Mead’s defense turned it over on downs at the Panthers 44. Frahm went for 16 yards and 13 yards to earn first-and-goal, but Mead settled for a Donovan Damiano 22-yard field goal with 22 seconds left in the half and a 24-7 lead at the break. 

Eastmont took its opening drive of the second half to the Mead 4 but stalled, and Trevor Wood kicked a 21-yard field goal to make it a two-score game. 

Leman’s punt hemmed the Wildcats deep in their territory, and when they kicked it back Mead took over at the Eastmont 40. The Panthers moved to the 14, but Leman’s fourth-down pass to the goal line went incomplete. 

But on the next play, Mead’s Keemani Benevidez sacked Zelinsky and recovered a fumble at the 6. Mallon took it in on the next play to make it 31-10 with just less than 5 minutes left. 

“Turnovers are important, especially in the playoffs,” Miller said. “Our coaches said we had to bring the juice, so we brought the juice.”

Beau Johnson picked off Zelinsky’s long pass attempt and returned it to the Panthers 47 to ice the victory. 

“You absolutely want to defend your home turf,” Stamps said. “Eastmont had a great season. Eastmont’s a good football team. You know, we’re sitting here at 9-1 With a loss to a pretty good (Gonzaga Prep) team and we feel good about it. We’ll see where the committee puts us on Sunday.”