Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

Wenatchee, Pasco meet in matchup of 2-0 teams

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

After watching his team do its best Houdini impression the first two weeks of the season, Pasco coach Dustin Lamb knows the Bulldogs can't rely on sleight of hand in tonight's CBBN Columbia home game with Wenatchee.

He's aware of the numbers -- Wenatchee is No. 1 in the CBBN in rushing offense (257.5 yards per game), while Pasco is 13th in rushing defense (246.5 allowed).

"We've got to match their physical play, pure and simple," Lamb said. "They've got the kind of running backs against whom poor tackling leads to long runs. They're real physical and real fast."

Pasco, like Wenatchee, is 2-0, but the Bulldogs needed to stop a two-point conversion in the final minutes to beat Richland and survived overtime to deny Davis its first league win in eight years.

"We went back to basics this week: blocking, tackling, the fundamentals," Lamb said. "It's definitely easier to teach stuff when you're 2-0 than when you're 0-2, though."

w Richland coach Mike Neidhold might disagree with Lamb. Despite his team's 0-2 start, he said his team has had a good week of practice readying for tonight's Cascade game at West Valley.

"Just because we're 0-2 doesn't mean we're panicking," he said. "We're not changing our offense or our defense. The issue is the mistakes that we've been making."

To that end, the coaching staff has simplified things on offense to try and take pressure off senior QB Hayden Hilty, who has thrown three interceptions and has a 43.7 passer rating through two weeks.

"I think he's been trying too hard," Neidhold said. "Fans won't notice anything different, but we've given him some easier reads to give him some confidence."

Neidhold also expects junior RB Jake McKinney to be at 100 percent tonight. McKinney sat out much of last week's loss to Eastmont with a hamstring injury.

w Kamiakin looks to build off the momentum of last week's win over West Valley tonight at Hanford, while sixth-ranked Southridge takes on Moses Lake at Lampson Stadium. ... Prosser hosts Othello tonight in a key CWAC matchup. The Huskies have lost eight straight to Prosser, last beating the Mustangs in 2003.