Cardinals Run Over Irish 54-13

PASCO - Three weeks in a row now, the Cardinals have come out against their playoff opponents like a house on fire and put at least 35 unanswered points on the board, leaving the other team wondering what just hit them.

Saturday's quarter-final game against DeSales was no exception. The only dif­ference was that WP's confi­dence was even higher and its execution even more deadly against the stunned Irish.

"Everyone believes now," WP head coach Jeff Bartlow said, referring to the team, their fellow students and the two communities whence they hail. "When every­body's

on board you've got something special."

His son Zach, who argu­ably had his best game as a Cardinal, agreed.

"We wanted it more," he said. "The kick-off return and score in the first minute took the wind out of them. Then we just piled it on."

It took WP just 48 sec­onds into the first quarter to find the end zone via a 55-yard Cady kickoff return, a 29-yard Bartlow run to the 3-yard line and a Cady touch­down

from there. As in the previous two playoff games, it set the tone, locked in the Cardinals' favorable mo­mentum, shut down the other team's crowd and ignited the WP sideline. "We came out more ready," head coach Bartlow said. Though the extra-point kick went wide left, two more touchdowns, one two-point conversion and one more extra point followed before the first quarter was said and done. The first of those two touchdowns came from a successful WP march from its own 36 and a final 19-yard Cady run into the end zone. TJ Hofer ran the two-point conversion on a goal line reverse with just over five minutes to go in the first. The first time DeSales entered the red zone, thanks in part to a face mask penalty against WP, Bartlow picked off a pass in the Cardinals' end zone, then marched his team deep into Irish territory and ran an 11-yard keeper into the end zone for TD number three.

Dalton Estes' extra-point kick was good, putting the Cards ahead 21-0 with 33 seconds remaining in the period.

The Irish unraveled fur­ther in the second quarter. After a fruitless DeSales pos­session, Cady turned a po­tential loss into a first-down run to the Irish' 17-yard line, followed two plays later by a pass to Dustin Wooderchak and a Justin Armstrong end-zone finish to make it 28-0 with Estes' extra point kick at 6:23 minutes before the half.

DeSales entered WP ter­ritory again and invaded the red zone only to see a Jer­emiah

Cox pass picked off by Bartlow on the Cardinals' 7-yard line. The last unanswered WP touchdown came when Bart­low connected with Hofer, who grabbed his teammate's pass and ran it down the sideline like an express train with the end zone as its final destination. Total distance between stations: 91 yards. Bartlow ran it in for the two-point conversion to give WP a 36-0 lead before the break. The Irish, who had won so decisively in their playoff game against Brewster (34-7) the week before, seemed jittery, unable to find their footing against the dominant Cardinals. The second half started somewhat more promising for the Irish, who won a mini fumble exchange but saw their ensuing drive end when Shane Eastman sacked Cox and the Cardinals regained possession.

Three plays later, Cady grabbed a pitch from Bartlow and ran it 33 yards into the end zone, making it 42-0. Estes' kick was no good.

The first DeSales touch­down finally came from a 19-yard Cox pass to Tommy Gregg and an extra point kick after several tries, each a little closer to the goal line because of WP penalties.

But the Cardinals wouldn't give up much of their earlier margin. Bartlow ran a keeper into the end zone for 38 yards on the next WP drive. The two-point run was no good, but still the Cards were up 48-7 going into the last quarter.

By this time, WP de­ployed its second squad with Dalton Estes as quarter­back. On their first successful drive, the JV players helped Estes get to the Irish' 18 from where the fresh quarterback ran it into the end zone for WP's last touchdown of the lopsided game. DeSales finally got some traction against the younger players with a 97-yard kick­off return from Joe Duehn into the end for a second Irish touchdown, but the extra point attempt was wide left.

Irish head coach Pat Gra­ham was quoted in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin say­ing his players were over­whelmed by the better pre­pared Cardinals. "They came out with a lot of intensity and a lot of emo­tion,"

he said in the UB story. "They were very determined to impose their will on us. And that's what they did." Coach Bartlow said it's not been easy to get wins against DeSales over the years. Even in the regular-season game against the arch rival, WP was behind before the half. But everything seemed to click with the players and the fans, who showed up in big numbers despite the hour drive and chilly weather to join the team as the twelfth man.

"It was a big win for ev­erybody," Bartlow said.

WP vs DeSales

54-13

WP 21 15 12 6 54

DS 0 0 7 6 13

Rushing. Zach Bartlow: 13 carries for 204 yards; Kris Cady: 15 carries for 173 yards; Justin Armstrong: 2 carries for 5 yards; Dalton Estes:2 carries for 24 yards; Jesse Moreno: 3 carries for 15 yards and Alex on rush for 3 yards.

Passing. Bartlow: 7/8 for 154 yards.

Receiving: Dustin Wood­erchak

3 for 43; Cady 1 for 6; T.J. Hofer: 2 for 93; Anthony 1 for 12.