Elite Makes Semis

OKANAGAN - The Waitsburg Elite seeded sec­ond going into the playoffs after beating the Okanagan Commandos 27-6 in their last game of the regular sea­son Saturday. They ended their first Washington Foot­ball League season with Waitsburg as their home with a 4-2 record.

The orange home team will play the Spokane Wolf­pack, which also ended the season 4-2, in the semifinals at Cardinal Field on Satur­day at 7 p.m.

"The season has flown by," team owner and quarter­back George Martinez said.

The Wolfpack, a team that has gotten its act to­gether and improved its game throughout the season, will pose a challenge for the Elite, which beat the Spokane by only a modest margin of 10-2 in the second week of the season.

But the Waitsburg team is going into the first round of the playoffs with some momentum. It will be the first time this spring that the injury-plagued Elite turns out healthy except for defensive back Trent Het­terly, who tore an ACL in the game against Wenatchee earlier in the season.

"We'll have a full squad of 37 guys all suited up and we haven't had that all year," Martinez said.

The Elite's offense is also on a roll with players who were thrown into slots ear­lier in the season to fill in for injured teammates now fi­nally beginning to work well together, he said. The team also benefits from two Divi­sion II linemen who have joined the Elite recently.

"It helps to have the of­fense clicking and it will click even more this week­end," Martinez predicted.

The Elite's season has gone about as well as Mar­tinez expected, with the team ending just behind the #1-seeded Wenatchee Valley Rams who beat the Waits­burgers 41-13 despite a promising 13-6 first-quarter start in favor of the Elite.

The Elite have proven to be more of a passing team than a rushing force. For the season, Martinez passed for 729 yards or just under 150 yards per game, compared to the run that netted the Waitsburg team just shy of 90 yards per game.

The rush, the pass and the quarterback end zone runs each produce the same number of touch downs at five a piece. Kicking gener­ated four field goals for a 75 percent completion rate. Martinez said on at least one occasion, his team des­perately wished it had been more.

The Elite had a chance to win its game against Palouse on May 18, when the score was 30 - 28 in favor of the Thunder with no time on the clock. But the field goal unit failed to secure the 45-yard attempt, leading to a heart­break loss, the only other league defeat this season.

But none of those road bumps have discouraged the fans from turning out for the home games on Cadinal Field, Martinez said, esti­mating an average of about 200 have shown up for each of the Saturday events. "The crowds are growing every game."

He hopes for an even better turnout for this week­end's semifinals.