Mistakes Cost Elite Shot at Championship

WAITSBURG - Two massive miscues cost Waits­burg Elite a shot at the Wash­ington Football League fi­nals, and ended their season here Saturday versus Spo­kane, 37-31.

Second-seeded Waitsburg dominated the game on pa­per, racking up more yards, fewer turnovers, fewer pen­alties, almost twice as many first downs and greater time of possession than the visit­ing third seed Wolfpack. But games aren't decided on pa­per. A fumbled lateral before halftime that Spokane ran back for a touchdown, and a blocked punt run back for another touchdown proved one too many mistakes for the Elite to overcome.

Not that they didn't try.

Trailing 31-10 with 8:30 to go in the game, Waits­burg took the possession, immediately following the blocked punt, for a touch­down- 73 yards on two plays for the first of three fourth quarter TDs. Quar­terback George Martinez capped the short drive with a 44-yard strike down the left seam to Michael Carter.

Waitsburg High grad Es­hom Estes wrecked Spo­kane's next possession from his defensive end position, sacking Wolfpack quar­terback Zack Clow and knocking the ball from his cocked arm. Fellow D-end James Harrison scooped up the fumble and rumbled 17 yards to the Wolfpack 37.

One play later, Martinez found Carter again, this time on a scrambling 37-yard TD toss to the end zone. The Elite trailed by one touch­down 31-24.

Spokane extended the lead back to two scores, thanks to a two-play drive finished by running back Bobby Hughes' 48-yard plunge over right guard. Elite players, attempting to strip the ball instead of tackle, failed to wrap up the speedy back. Spokane missed their extra point try and the scored stood 37-24.

Martinez and the Elite rallied again with 2:12 to go. Waitsburg drove 56 yards in seven plays. Martinez found end Jeff Knowles at the goal line for Waitsburg's third fourth-quarter touchdown. Knowles had to leap high for the ball and paid with pun­ishment to the midsection, getting cut in half by a Wolf­pack defender. Knowles was shaken up on the play, but held onto the ball.

The extra point brought Waitsburg to within six, 37- 31, with 57 seconds left. The Elite successfully executed a must-have on-side kick that Waitsburg High grad Zac Alexenko recovered at the Spokane 45 with 47 ticks left.

Martinez tossed an 11- yard gainer to running back Brandon Tate on the first play from scrimmage, ad­vancing the ball to the Wolf­pack 34. But linebacker Paul Swanson intercepted Martinez's next pass to end Waitsburg's final threat.

"You can never really fig­ure you're out of it until you see zeros," said Elite quarter­back Martinez. "-LESS-THAN-0096-After the on-side kick-GREATER-THAN-0096- I thought we had a chance. We were mov­ing the ball really well. They weren't bringing pressure the series before, so I thought I could sit back in the pocket. But they brought the extra blitz on the right side and I pretty much stepped into it. I threw it a little bit early."

"Defensively we were sound for most of the game, but we had those key mental errors that ended up hurting us a bit," Elite free safety Alexenko said. "Those little things added up."

The two sides played to a draw leading into halftime. The score was knotted at 10- 10 following Spokane's late first half field goal.

Instead of running out the clock, Waitsburg used the remaining half-minute to take a shot at another score. Running back Brandon Tate caught a short pass from Martinez at the Waitsburg 30, then cut his way across the field to the 50 where he appeared to be wrapped up. Instead of going down, Tate ill-advisedly lateraled to keep the play going. The ball bounced off a crowd of players before finally being picked up by Spokane line- backer Clark Pauls. Pauls scampered 30 yards down the left hash before lateraling to fellow backer Swanson. Swanson took it the rest of the way to paydirt as the sec- ond quarter clock hit zeros.

The touchdown gave Spokane a 17-10 lead at the break which they built to 24-10 just three plays into the third quarter against a shell-shocked Elite. Clow hit Jarall Haynes for an 11-yard touchdown pass just 1:26 into the second half to cap the quick 69-yard drive.

"Overall I think the sea- son went great," said Marti- nez, who is also the team's general manager. "Obvi- ously, we've got some things to fix, but if Waitsburg al- lows us to come back [next season], we'd love to come back."

The Elite finish the sea- son 4-3.

Spokane takes on top- seeded Wenatchee for the WFL title this weekend. Wenatchee defeated Okano- gan 31-14 in the other semi- final matchup.

SPOKANE 0 17 7 13 - 37 WAITSBURG 0 10 0 21 - 31

PASSING: W - G. Martinez 19-43 352 3 TDs 1 INT; S - Clow 7-15 142 1 TD 1 INT.

RUSHING: W - 24-94 (Tate 20-100, G. Martinez 3-(-7) 1 TD, Carter 1-1); S - 33-214 (Hughes 23-169 2 TD, 1 fumble, Clow 9-35 1 fumble, Parker 1-10).

RECEIVING: W - Carter 8-158 2 TDs, Tate 4-62 1 fumble, S. Martinez 2-28, Mitchell 2-67, Knowles 1-19 1 TD, McGee 2-28; S - de Golla 2-2, Haynes 2-14 1TD, Johnson 1-22, Harness 2-104.

FIELD GOALS: W-Solis 1-2 (made 20 yds., missed 48 yds.); S-Harness 1-1 (27 yds.).

TOTAL YARDS: W-446, S-356. / FIRST DOWNS: W-22, S-12. / TURNOVERS: W-2, S-3.

PENALTIES W 8-55, S 10-78.