WP Advances as Leroue Hits 1,000

WAITSBURG - Call it a triumvirate. Or football's version of the "triple-dou­ble." Waitsburg-Prescott running back Chance Le­roue ran for a touchdown, caught a pass for a touch­down (twice actually) and threw a pass for yet an­other touchdown, as the Cardinals cruised to a 41-14 victory over Liberty here Friday night. On top of all that, Leroue also rushed for 167 yards, putting him over the 1,000 yard mark for the season. He also had 40 yards receiving.

The win puts the Cardi­nals into the WIAA 16-team state tournament. Their play­off march begins Saturday with a game against Adna at 4:30 p.m. at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco. With a win, they would move on to the quarterfinals to play the winner of the game between Reardan and Oroville.

Cardinal Coach Jeff Bart­low said he was particu­larly pleased with the per­formances of Leroue and defensive back and punter Luke Alexenko. "Chance did it all on offense for us," he said, praising his more than 200 yards total offense.

As for Alexenko, he had two punts that averaged more than forty yards, and two pass interceptions, in­cluding one for a 30 yard touchdown return. "Luke has really stepped up his game on defense the last two weeks," Bartlow said. "He has made a huge impact and continues to improve."

WP started off a little wobbly, with two quick penalties and an early Owen Lanning interception. "We kinda shot ourselves in the foot a bit early on," Bartlow said. But the Lancers were no match for the Cardinals, who got themselves properly oriented and rolled up a 41-0 lead after three quarters.

After a 13-yard Leroue rushing TD in the first quar­ter, Alexenko's interception return for a second score and Leroue's 16-yard halfback pass to Devin Acevedo for a third TD, made it 21-0 at the half. Leroue caught two touchdown passes and Ace­vedo added a 3-yard running TD, for a 20-point WP third quarter.

All of Liberty's scoring, and most of its offense, came in the fourth quarter, after Bartlow pulled his starters. "We played our young guys the entire fourth quarter, and that was nice for our starters and our young kids," he said.

For the game, quaterback Lanning was 10 for 17 pass­ing, for 80 yards and the lone interception. He also rushed for 69 yards on ten carries. Acevedo had five pass re­ception for 35 yards, includ­ing the touchdown pass from Leroue.

Waitsburg-Prescott 41, Liberty 14

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