Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

Ready for Friday night lights

It was around halftime -- or maybe even early in the third quarter -- when Kennewick assistant volleyball coach Phil Dron finally made it to the press box at Lampson Stadium.

The Lions had just finished a five-set, come-from-behind victory over Eastmont, and he attributed the Lions' slow start in part to the football game taking place between Kennewick and Sunnyside.

Very few fans, you see, made it to the Lions Den for the match. Most everyone was at the football game. Even the spikers wanted to be cheering on their classmates -- and would have appreciated a few of those fans making some noise for them.

Which led to another question I heard posed -- why were they playing this game on Thursday night (a school night, if you recall)? Why not Saturday night?

Which, looking at the schedule, is a good question. There are no soccer games scheduled for Lampson on Saturday. Give the volleyball girls the night to themselves so they could have had a few fans for their five-set thriller, and save football to a Saturday night for themselves.

The Thursday football affair also meant I couldn't get to the other big match of the night -- Richland at Kamiakin, in which the Braves rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Bombers in five sets and create a jumbled mess near the top of the CBBN standings.

This is exactly how the coaches figured the league would look this year: Southridge, for now, is all alone atop the league at 4-0, with West Valley at 3-0 and then four teams at 3-1 -- Kennewick, Kamiakin, Eisenhower and Richland.

The Bombers take on Southridge on Saturday in Kennewick (another good match that I shall miss for an even higher priority -- the U-11 Star Shooters' big soccer showdown with ... ummm ... no clue what the other team's name is), while Ike is at West Valley and 2-1 Wa-Hi is at Kennewick. Expect the standings to be even more jumbled by Saturday evening, when Pasco and Chiawana close things out with a 7 p.m. match marking the first time they'll meet in any athletic competition.

As for the football game ... Kennewick did exactly what it needed to do. The Lions overcame an early oops play -- an illegal forward pass on fourth down that negated a touchdown -- to score on their next four possessions and pretty much put the Grizzlies away by halftime.

For the second straight week, a quarterback and his top receiver were in perfect sync -- this time, it was Trent Brown and Drew Loftus, who connected 11 times for 132 yards and four touchdowns. Brown further redeemed himself with a nifty 5-yard TD scramble late in the third quarter that put the exclamation point on the victory.

The win means next week's Kennewick-Davis game at Zaepfel could decide the Columbia Division's fifth crossover seed. Davis in the playoffs? Very possible in what has shaped up to be a crazy first couple of weeks to the CBBN season.

Week 3 is fully upon us tonight, and hopefully I'll have refound my mojo. Guess I used up my allotment from last week with my miracle performance at the Jesuit High alumni golf tournament -- went a cool 10-6 in Week 2, putting me at 19-9 for the season.

But hey, I picked Kennewick's win, so I'm already on the right track for this week.

Chiawana at Eisenhower

The Riverhawks picked up their first-ever win last week against Hanford. This is another winnable game for them, but the double whammy of going to Zaepfel and taking on a rejuvenated Ike squad that humbled Walla Walla at Borleske last Friday might be too much. Eisenhower 35-21

Kamiakin at Hanford

The Braves offense consisted last week mostly of Corey Hutchison-to-Tim White. That was enough to beat West Valley, and it might just be enough against the Falcons. The Braves defense is looking pretty good through two games, while Hanford is still finding its way offensively. 21 is Braves coach Scott Biglin's magic number, and I see them hitting blackjack again at Fran Rish. Kamiakin 21-14

Richland at West Valley

This is a perfect bounce-back opponent for the Bombers, who are in desperate need of one. Feature boy Hayden Hilty has had the Herald whammy put on him but good in the first two weeks, and this is a chance for him to break out of his funk. And if Jake McKinney is 100 percent, he should have a big game at Clasen Field. Richland 34-12

Walla Walla at Eastmont

Everything that could go wrong for Wa-Hi did last week. Everything that could go right for Eastmont against the Bombers did last week. You figure luck has got to change for both teams, but Eastmont at home has the advantage. Eastmont 17-15

Moses Lake at Southridge

The Suns are not winning pretty right now, but they don't care about style points. They've grinded out two wins so far, good enough for a No. 6 ranking in this week's AP poll. Their run defense, No. 1 in the CBBN so far, will get a stern test from the Chiefs, but the Suns should pass. Southridge 24-20

Wenatchee at Pasco

The Panthers have throttled their first two opponents, Eastmont and Kennewick, by a combined score of 69-14. Their physicality will wear down a game Bulldogs team that is 2-0 but potentially two plays from being 0-2. Wenatchee 33-16

Othello at Prosser

The Mustangs' second-stringers are not as powerful as years past. Unfortunately for Othello, the first string has looked just fine in blasting Redmond and Quincy. The Huskies romped past Ephrata last week, and they still feel the sting of last year's last-minute quarterfinal loss to Prosser, but I just can't see the Mustangs losing at Fiker. Prosser 34-22

Columbia (Burbank) at Warden

The Cougars have found themselves a passing game with Arturo Reyes at QB and Nathan Brown at receiver. They're not the automatic W they were last year, but I still see the Coyotes winning a toughie. Burbank 26-20

Connell at Kiona-Benton

The Eagles came up big down the stretch against Cashmere (sorry to have ever doubted them), while Ki-Be laid an egg against Goldendale. The Bears will be looking to redeem themselves, but this is not the opponent against whom to do that. Connell 46-14

Cle Elum at River View

This could be a preview of a Week 10 SCAC crossover playoff game. The Panthers better hope I didn't jinx their QB, Matt Wilhelm, as badly as I seem to have Hilty. River View 35-21

Enterprise at Liberty Christian

The Patriots picked up a big road win at Weston-McEwen last week, and I think they'll pull a mild upset here as they ready for Southeast 2B play. Liberty Christian 28-23

Umatilla at Stevenson

With Hermiston on a bye and Tri-Cities Prep having to cancel its scheduled 11-man game against Waitsburg-Prescott because of an illness hitting its team this week, that opens up a spot for a wild-card game, and this is it. Don't know much about either team, other than Umatilla went to Oregon 3A state last year and thrashed Dayton two weeks ago. That's good enough for me. Umatilla 35-14

Til next time ...