Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Wa-Hi rallies past Richland 35-21

By the Herald staff

WALLA WALLA -- Gary Winston caught a pair of touchdown passes from Michael Weisner in the fourth quarter as Walla Walla rallied from a 21-7 halftime deficit to defeat Richland 35-21 in CBBN Cascade play Friday night at Borleske Stadium.

Wa-Hi scored 28 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to escape with a victory that clinched the division's No. 3 crossover seed and a home playoff game next Friday against Moses Lake.

It's a rematch of last year's crossover playoffs, when Wa-Hi traveled to Moses Lake and won 34-13.

Richland fell to the No. 5 seed with the loss and travels to Columbia champion Wenatchee for the crossover playoffs.

Richland built its halftime lead on the right arm of Hayden Hilty, who tossed a pair of TD passes -- a 40-yarder to Elijah Gardaya and a 14-yarder to Andrew Kusuda.

Hilty finished 12-of-22 for 135 yards, while Jake McKinney rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown.

Weisner went 12-for-22 for 144 yards, and he also ran for a touchdown during Wa-Hi's fourth-quarter blitz.

Richland 7 14 0 0 -- 21

Walla Walla 7 0 0 28 -- 35

SCORING PLAYS

WW--Brandon Porter 47 run (Dean Atkinson kick)

R--Jake McKinney 1 run (Dylan Klute kick)

R--Elijah Gardaya 40 pass from Hayden Hilty (Klute kick)

R--Andrew Kusuda 14 pass from Hilty (Klute kick)

WW--Gary Winston 14 pass from Michael Weisner (Atkinson kick)

WW--Weisner 2 run (Atkinson kick)

WW--Winston 27 pass from Weisner (Atkinson kick)

WW--Austin Schilling 6 run (Atkinson kick)

STATISTICS

RUSHING--R, McKinney 30-106, Hilty 2-2, Gage Reynolds 2-5. WW, Porter 5-56, Winston 4-38, Schilling 14-47, Weisner 11-8.

PASSING--R, Hilty 12-22-0-135 WW, Weisner 12-22-1-144.

RECEIVING--R, Kusuda 5-53, Reynolds 1-1, Gardaya 3-43, Jordan Codray 2-17, McKinney 1-21. WW, Mo Handcox 3-19, Winston 6-78, Porter 1-(minus 3), Schilling 1-22, Aaron Flipp 1-28.

FIRST DOWNS--R 13, WW 14. FUMBLES-LOST--R 2-2, WW 3-3. PENALTIES-YARDS--R 4-19, WW 4-20.