Friday, Oct. 09, 2009

Suns tame Bulldogs

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

It's one thing for Southridge to shut out Davis, as the Suns did a week ago.

It's another thing for them to cross the blue bridge into Pasco, enter Edgar Brown Stadium and lay a 48-0 beatdown on the Bulldogs, as they did Thursday night in CBBN Columbia action.

It marked Southridge's first-ever win over Pasco at Edgar Brown and its third straight overall in the series, but none quite as sweet as this one.

"We talked all week in practice about how we'd never won over here," said junior Dallin Palmer, a newbie to this rivalry as an Idaho Falls transfer. Palmer made a big impact by scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 175 yards.

"We wanted to make a statement and show how good our football team is," he said. "And we got Coach (Andy) Troxel his win. It's great."

Troxel talked about how special it was to win on the field where he was a Bulldogs assistant for six seasons, and how nice it was to see his team put up its most complete performance of the season.

The Suns (5-1, 4-1) allowed only 79 yards and two first downs, no surprise from the CBBN's No. 1 defense.

But they also put up a season-high 410 yards of total offense, with Stephen Garcia going 9-of-16 through the air for 147 yards and two TDs and also running for a score.

"Our defense has played really well all year," Troxel said. "But now our offense is starting to jell. Stephen's confidence is going through the roof, and we got Chris Whitney back (from an injury), and he energizes our receiving corps."

On the other side, the Bulldogs (2-4, 1-4) continued their slide after their oh-so-close 28-22 loss to Wenatchee three weeks ago. They lost their fourth straight, including three in a row at Edgar Brown -- the first time that's happened since 1992.

"I don't think we've ever recovered" from the Wenatchee loss, said first-year Pasco coach Dustin Lamb, whose team has a bye next week.

"We've got a lot of work to do. We're still kind of a work in progress, with a new coaching staff and a lot of new players. We'll use this week to teach and heal up a little bit."

The Suns smothered Pasco's spread offense, not allowing the Bulldogs to pop the big plays on the outside with speedsters Marques Avery and Austin Wilborn that were so effective against Wenatchee.

Josh Morris, fighting an illness, finished just 6-of-14 passing for 17 yards and three interceptions. He also was sacked four times.

"We talked about keeping outside containment, stopping the big plays and being ready for those bubble (screens) and quick passes," said senior linebacker Drew Powell, who had six tackles (11/2 for loss) and capped Southridge's dominating performance with a 29-yard interception return for his first career touchdown late in the third quarter.

The Suns led 24-0 at halftime, with Garcia sandwiching TD passes of 30 yards to Tyrell McGee and 19 to Palmer with a 1-yard TD on a quarterback sneak.

Chandler Mertens tacked on his second field goal of the game on Southridge's opening drive of the second half, and after an exchange of punts, Palmer ended his night with a 6-yard TD run with 1:17 left in the third.

Powell's TD return came on Pasco's next play from scrimmage, and Tamrich Perez ended the scoring with a 9-yard TD run with 9:01 to play.

Bevin Whitby was the lone bright spot for Pasco, making 18 tackles (11/2 for loss) at linebacker. The Bulldogs lost junior DeVaunte Lamb to a hip flexor injury late in the first half, and Dustin Lamb is hopeful he'll return in two weeks when Pasco plays Kennewick in its regular-season finale.