Turnovers Trump Cards In Loss To T-O-R

OAKESDALE - Waitsburg- Prescott couldn't overcome an uncharacteristic five-turnover night and lost to Tekoa-Oakes­dale Rosalia in the opening game of league football play, 32-22.

It was the Cardinals' first loss since 2010.

That's not to say last week's no. 1 team in the Class 2B ranks didn't try.

The Cardinals trailed, 20-0, at halftime thanks to two par­ticularly costly fumbles. The first occurred in the first quarter on the second play of WP's second possession. Taking the snap at his own 17 yard line, quarterback Sterling Eastman turned to pitch the ball to his running back on a sweep right, but the toss was far beyond the reach of his pitch man and the ball skittered to a stop at the one yard marker where a T-O-R de­fender pounced on it. One play later, Craig Nelson scored the Nighthawks' first touchdown. A two-point conversion made it 8-0.

After T-O-R scored a sec­ond touchdown to go up, 14-0, late in the second quarter, WP mounted its first sustained drive, moving from the 50 to the 4-yard line in less than 2 minutes. On second-and-goal, Eastman tripped and stumbled as he stepped back from center. Afraid to go down for fear of a lost down and yardage, he at­tempted a falling hand-off/pitch to runningback Billy Brown. Brown was not ready for it and the ball bounced into the hands of T-O-R's Brock Shelton. Shelton ran the fumble back 94 yards for the Nighthawks' third touchdown of the game.

WP's first drive out of half­time began at its own 43 and progressed to the Nighthawk 18 before the Cards gave the ball back on a failed fourth down pass. Its second drive of the half ended on another fourth down with a sack of Eastman by Nel­son. Two plays later, T-O-R's Clay Shelton rushed the ball 48-yards straight through the heart of WP's D-line for a touch­down. T-O-R led, 26-0, with 51 seconds to go in the third. The rout appeared to be on.

But WP's quick-strike of­fense awakened and immedi­ately answered with a two-play, 21 second touchdown drive.

Dalton Estes returned the kick­off to the WP 43, and a personal foul on T-O-R advanced the ball to the Nighthawk 43. Eastman hit Estes for 40 yards on a fly route down the right sideline. Brown finished the drive with a 3-yard sweep. The third quarter ended with WP down, 26-7.

WP started its next drive with 8:45 to go in the game. It took the Cards 1:38 to cover 51 yards and score its second touchdown on an Eastman to Roy Ebong 12-yard completion on fourth down. WP went for two, and Brown delivered clos­ing the gap, 26-14.

Just as momentum appeared to be swinging to the WP side, its defense broke down on T- O-R's next possession. Nelson crashed through right side of the defense over tackle for a 67- yard touchdown. With just 6:01 to go, the Nighthawks boosted the lead, 32-15.

WP was not about to quit. The Cards scored on their third- consecutive possession, going 51 yards in 3:10. Again, Ebong converted a crucial fourth down, catching the ball 2 yards short of the marker then driving his legs into his tackler who had him wrapped up. Ebong pushed him back 5 yards for the first down and more. Brown again capped the drive, this time on a 2-yard plunge over left guard. WP trailed 32-22 with 3:42 left to go.

WP's defense stymied T-O- R's next possession for a 1-yard loss on three plays, and forced a punt at the 2:30 mark. Start­ing at its own 35, WP tried and failed to complete three consec­utive pass plays, but converted its third fourth-and-long via a 21-yard scramble by Eastman with 2:01 left.

Estes hauled in a 10-yard reception on the next play and WP was approaching a fourth consecutive touchdown, in business at Nighthawk 34. Un­fortunately, two plays later the drive ended with the Cardinals fourth fumble, this time on the exchange from Eastman to Brown. T-O-R recovered and ran out the clock.

"We lost the game on turn­overs," said WP head coach Jeff Bartlow. "We can't go down and fumble on the one yard line and give them the short field. Then we go down and we're about to punch it in. Sterling (Eastman)'s trying to hand the ball off to a guy and he's on his knees. I told Sterling we don't practice handing the ball off on our knees. Just jump on it and get possession. Then it's a 95- yard touchdown recovery."

The Cardinal defense gave up a devastating 294 yards to T-O-R on the ground. Nelson accounted for 177 of those yards on 28 carries-an average of over six yards per carry. WP mustered only 86 yards of total offense in the first half, but rebounded with 223 in the second.

Eastman's night was his worst at the helm of the Cards. The usually steady senior con­nected on just 13-of-28 passes for 161 yards, one touchdown, and one interception, and he was involved in three of the four Cardinal fumbles. He fared much better in the second half of the game, tallying 10 of his 13 completions with seven of them going for 10 yards or more.

WP falls to 3-1 on the sea­son and 0-1 in league play. Their next opponent is unde­feated DeSales, a 34-6 winner Friday over Dayton. The two rivals square off at 7 p.m. Fri­day in Waitsburg.

WP00715-22

TOR81266-32

Rushing: WP 148 (Eastman 17-94, Brown 15-50 2 TDs),TOR 294 (Nelson 28-177 2 TDs, C. Shelton 5-75 1 TD).

Passing: WP 161 (Eastman 13-28-161 1 TD, 1 INT), TOR87 (Maley 6-11-87 1 TD).

Receiving: WP (Estes 7-102, Ebong 4-32 1 TD, Leroue2-27), TOR (C. Shelton 3-37, Brown 1-12 1 TD).

Turnovers: WP 5, TOR 0.

First Downs: WP 18, TOR 14.

Penalties: WP 3-52, TOR 12-96 (including three personalfouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct).