WP Second String Gets Plenty Of Field Time Against Mabton

WAITSBURG - Waits- burg-Prescott's first-string defense held Mabton to minus 31 yards of rushing and minus 3 yards passing, en route to a 54-8 homecoming drubbing of the visiting Vikings here Friday.

Mabton recorded no first downs versus WP's no. 1 defense, fumbled twice, and ran only four plays for positive yardage. WP's starters played just half the game, and their dominant perfor- mance on both offense and defense forced the 40-point running clock rule for the entire second half.

WP's initial scoring came early and often. The Cards put 26 points on the board in less than 5:30 in the first quarter.

WP garnered its first points of the game on a 23- yard Dalton Estes field goal at 6:23. It was the only time the Viking defense held the Cardinals' first string offense out of the end zone.

WP scored again 2 min- utes later when Mabton's punter took a high snap in the back of the end zone, stepping on the end line for a safety. It marked WP's sec- ond safety in as many weeks. On the ensuing kickoff, WP's Roy Ebong returned the ball to Mabton's 15-yard line, then, on the first play from scrimmage, scored a touchdown on a diving scoop catch over the middle on a toss from WP quarterback Sterling Eastman.

Ebong scored another six points less than 1 minute later, returning Mabton's third punt of the night 43 yards for a touchdown. Three plays and a Riley Stevens fumble recovery later, WP scored their 25th and 26th points on a Dalton Estes 14-yard pitch right to pay dirt.

Ebong and Estes each scored three times on the night. Ebong's third score, an 8-yard touchdown grab from Eastman bumped the lead to 33-0. Estes' rushing score from 3 yards out made it 40-0 at halftime.

WP first-string offense and first-string defense didn't play the final series of the first half, but appeared one more time at the beginning of the second. Estes big-played the demoral­ized Vikings on the fourth play of the second half-a powering 59-yard run through numerous arm tackles on the left side of the line that ended with WP's sixth touchdown.

Second team WP running back James Thompkins iced the Cardinals' scoring with his own 3-yard touchdown run at the 4:22 mark of the third quarter.

Mabton's sole scoring drive resulted from great field posi­tion at the WP 18 after a fumble by WP back-up quarterback Owen Lanning. Viking run­ning back Josh Carassco took a lateral to the left and swept in for the score with 33 seconds remaining in the game.

"It's not the game you want to play-you want a little stiffer challenge," said WP coach Jeff Bartlow. "You take the plusses out of it. No one got hurt. A lot of kids got to play. You get some depth issues taken care of. We needed to get our swagger going early offensively."

Estes had a stellar night for WP as the team's kicker. The Waitsburg High School senior from Prescott booted his first five kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, hit every extra-point try, and as mentioned before, nailed a first quarter field goal from 23 yards out.

"(Estes') kicking and our kicking game is becoming a huge threat," Bartlow said. "He hit his third field goal in a row this week. He kicks into the end zone on a regular ba­sis. He punts on a regular ba­sis 40 yards. That's one of the reasons we beat DeSaleshellip; there's no question, because of special teams, because of field position."

The win ups the Cards' record to 6-1 on the season, and 2-1 in league play. Thanks to a Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosalia loss at DeSales on Friday, WP controls its own destiny for the league championship.

"The bottom line is it evens things up for us," noted Bartlow. "We split with those two teams (DeSales and T-O-R). We've got two league games left and Tekoa(-Oakesdale-Rosalia)'s done. They've played all five of their (league) games. If we can just put together a little two game winning streak these last two games (at Asotin and at home versus Tri-Cities Prep), we've got the tie-breaker. So we've got to take care of busi­ness. If we stub our toe and lose to either one of those teams, we're going to be in third place or fourth."

WP is at Asotin on Friday.

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