Tigers On To State With Weekend Split Bulldog Football Season Ends In Spangle

PRESCOTT - One win was all the Waitsburg- Prescott soccer team needed to punch its ticket to the Class 1B/2B State Playoffs.

The Tigers struck out in their first attempt at home against Northwest Christian last Friday, 4-2, but bounced back to knock off Riverside Christian in a loser-out con­test, 6-1, at Spokane and claim the No. 3 seed to state.

WP built a 2-0 halftime lead over Riverside Christian on the Gonzaga Prep pitch. Captain Lino Diaz and fellow forward Ernesto Valdovinos tallied the first half mark­ers. Diaz booted his goal in the 20th minute assisted by Valdovinos. Valdovinos scored nine minutes later off a helper by Fernando Torres- Escalante.

"We didn't score right away, because we had to get used to the artificial turf," WP assistant coach Jay Potts said. "The turf has a lot more grip, so players can stop quickly, but the ball sure doesn't stop. It flies (on turf)."

Diaz and Valdovinos each scored second half goals as did midfielders Luis Garcia and Torres-Escalante.

Diaz scored the Tigers third goal two minutes into the second half with Jesse Albarran on the assist.

The 61st minute started an offensive explosion by both teams. Garcia scored less than a minute after entering the game. Valdovinos shot on the Riverside goalkeeper who blocked the shot, but Garcia corralled the rebound on his foot and pushed it home for the 4-0 lead.

One minute later, Torres- Escalante added his marker unassisted. Riverside scored its only goal of the game on a 50-yard bouncing shot one minute after that, and at the 66 minute mark Valdovinos buried his second goal to end the scoring. Jose Paniagua picked up the assist.

WP ended the game with 31 shots on goal. WP fresh­man goalie Antonio Benito stopped six balls, with four of the saves deemed "incred­ible" by Potts.

Friday's match was a much closer, see-saw battle that Northwest Christian didn't put out of reach until stoppage time.

Neither team scored until the Northwest Christian's Ja­cob Weaver took a long pass in on a break-away against Benito. Weaver juked, then rolled the ball past and to the right of a juke-committed Benito.

WP answered a minute- and-a-half later when Val­dovinos' corner kick sailed over Crusader goalkeeper Dex Hughes, as well as his intended target Diaz who tried but missed the header. Torres-Escalante crashing weak side headed in the equalizer off the bounce.

The score remained knot­ted, 1-1, until the 63rd minute when NWC captain Austin Friedly netted a left-footed try from 12-yards out in traf­fic. Five minutes later, WP tied it again when Lino Diaz lifted a free kick from the edge of the 18-yard box, over a wall of defenders and off the hand of Hughes into the top right corner of the goal.

Crusader Payton Gray tallied the winner with just four minutes remaining in the match when he blasted a hard angle shot into the left of the goal from 40 yards out. Benito got fingers on it, but couldn't stop it.

WP had two final chanc­es- one on a free kick and the other on a corner kick- both in stoppage time. Nei­ther chance netted results. Instead a clearing pass by Northwest Christian resulted in a game-ending break- away that Cooper Smith took one-on-one versus Benito, beating the Tiger goalie right side high.

WP begins its third con­secutive state play-offs, and first ever title defense with a rematch of Friday's North­west Christian contest in Spokane. The winner moves on to play the winner of the Bear Creek-Mt. Vernon Christian game in the state semifinals at Sumner. The Tigers are one of eight teams vying for the Class 1B/2B championship.

SPANGLE - The Day­ton football team closed its season with a District 7 and 9 crossover game against Liberty High School, falling, 20-13, last Friday evening in Spangle.

The Bulldogs opened strong, moving the ball at a methodical, comfortable pace down the field, picking up five first downs before scoring the first touchdown of the game. The point after conversion was good, open­ing the game with a score of 7-0, Bulldogs with 6:16 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs kicked the ball off to the Lancers, who wasted no time moving back up the field with a good return. The Lancers moved down the field a few yards at a time until a pass to a wide open receiver broke into a touchdown with 3:50 left in the first quarter. The Lancers attempted a two-point con­version, but were unsuccess­ful, bringing the score to 7-6, Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs picked the ball back up and were ready to answer the Lancers' call, but a fumble cost the Bull­dogs their possession.

The Lancers were unable to move the ball and turned over on downs, returning possession to the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs pushed and covered good ground but a block in the back call pushed them out of first down range, forcing them to kick off to keep the ball out of their ter­ritory.

The first quarter ended with a score of 7-6, Bulldogs.

The second quarter opened with two quick first downs and big gains by the Lancers, moving them down into scoring position. With 10:03 left in the half, the Lancers got the ball into the end zone, but couldn't com­plete a two-point conversion, bringing the score to 7-12, Lancers.

Flags slowed many of the plays in the second quarter, one of which, a block in the back, costing the Bulldogs a touchdown. When the down was replayed after the called back touchdown, the Lancers stripped a fumble, elimi­nating any chance for the Bulldogs to break away and score. Late whistles caused problems when the stripped ball was removed from a pileup and one Lancer took off down the field, without being noticed by the referees who blew the whistle after several seconds of struggle between the two teams. The call was heavily debated be­tween the two teams and re­sulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct call on the Bulldogs' assistant coach.

When the game was re­started, the teams pushed back and forth with an in­terception by Dakota Hayes with four seconds left in the half. Despite the gained possession, the Bulldogs were unable to score before the end of the half.

The Bulldogs got their fight back in the second half, putting pressure on the Lancers and forcing their quarterback to throw the ball before he was ready. Despite the pressure, the Lancers were able to get into scoring position, pick­ing up a touchdown with 8:33 left in the quarter. The two-point conversion was successful, bringing the score to 20-7, Lancers.

The Bulldogs moved the ball down the field, gaining yards and first downs with the same force they opened the game with.

Ten yards at a time, the Bulldogs kept down the field until Lowden Smith was able to score a touch­down with 56 seconds left on the clock. The point after attempt was no good ending the scoring for both teams and bringing the score to 20-13, Lancers.

The Bulldogs pushed hard in the final quarter of their season, picking up yards, but unable to get the ball into the end zone before the Lancers took a knee to end the game.

"We fought hard," head coach Dean Bickelhaupt said. "They played hard for me."

Bickelhaupt said the one touchdown that was called back broke the Bulldogs' momentum and worked against them.

"We're going to miss those seniors," Bickelhaupt said.