West Valley’s Austin Clark totals five touchdowns in 39-10 win over Pullman

It may not have played out the way the West Valley football team desired in terms of execution – at least in the first half.

But the Eagles found football in the final two quarters in their Greater Spokane League opener, riding running back Austin Clark and defense to stop the visiting Pullman Greyhounds 39-10.

Clark finished with five touchdowns – four rushing and one receiving. He had 17 carries for 121 yards and one reception, good for a 22-yard touchdown.

It was a typical matchup between an undefeated team and a winless team. But it took West Valley (4-0) two quarters to get untracked.

The Eagles led 13-7 at halftime. WV owned the second half.

“Pretty good effort, but we have a lot of things to clean up,” WV coach Craig Whitney said. “We were sloppy and Pullman gave us a tussle.”

Clark scored on runs of 12, 5, 11 and 10 yards.

West Valley highlighted the scoring when Clark scored on first-and-goal from the 10-yard line, extending the score to the final margin with 4:23 remaining.

“The first half we had some things to clean up at halftime,” Clark said. “The front seven were amazing for me. I’d like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to do what I do.”

Pullman dropped to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the GSL.

“Austin Clark was kind of magical,” Whitney said. “When he touches the ball, good things happen.”

WV should have had a bigger lead than 13-7 at halftime. The Eagles were in the red zone at Pullman’s 15 after a Greyhounds fumble.

The Eagles opened the scoring when quarterback Nathan Zettle found Austin Griffith on a 27-yard scoring play with 8:06 to go in the first quarter.

After holding WV at its 15, Pullman marched 75 yards on seven plays. Running back Brady Coulter scored on a 25-yard run to even the score at 7 with 2:11 to go in the opening period.

Moments later, Zettle was intercepted in the end zone, ending another promising possession.

After forcing a punt, WV moved the ball again to the Pullman 8 and attempted a 25-yard field goal. But the kick was wide left with 4:49 to go before halftime.

The Eagles took the lead on their next possession when Clark took a counter and dashed 12 yards. The point-after kick failed and WV led 13-7 with 24 seconds left in the half.

WV expects a battle on Friday when Rogers visits.

“We’ve got a chance to be OK,” Whitney said. “We need to work on some attitudes and figure that out. The core of us is pretty solid. We want to try and get a little better each week.”