Sunday, Sep. 20, 2009

What a finish at Edgar Brown

It's been 24 hours now, and I'm still buzzing about that finish at Edgar Brown on Friday night.

What a roller-coaster ride of emotions on the Pasco side of the field. Down one minute, trailing Wenatchee 21-7 with less than 7 minutes to go, a few fans exiting the stadium to beat the rush and make it home by 10 o'clock.

Big mistake, because a few minutes later, the Bulldogs score to get within 21-14, giving them some life with 2:41 to play.

Then, another big roar. Emmanuel Martinez's onside kick bonks off a Wenatchee player's legs. Mad scramble, but first to the ball is Brandon Search for Pasco, who survives a couple players jumping on top of him and cradles the ball for dear life.

A Josh Morris scramble for 3 yards produces a nervous groan. Then a quick shovel pass to DeVaunte Lamb for a first down, and the crowd springs back to life. The purple faithful erupt when Austin Wilborn leaves two defenders in his wake as he races to the end zone for a touchdown. Another bigger, longer eruption soon follows when Marques Avery somehow eludes a defender in the backfield on a sweep left, then scoots his way just inside the pylon for the two-point conversion.

Miracle of miracles -- it's 22-21 Pasco with 1:14 left.

I look at Rosie Bogart, Pasco's longtime athletic secretary, who's now standing beside me in the press box, barely containing her excitement. Wonder if they'll kick it deep? I ask her.

Yep, they did. Big mistake No. 2.

Because Jacob Sealby is waiting back there for the ball for Wenatchee. Pasco coach Dustin Lamb hopes the Huskies will take a look at the 6-foot-1, 195-pounder (but he'll probably end up at Oregon, Lamb quips) who may be a tweener size-wise but is just a playmaker -- 13 tackles, flying all over the field, 228 rushing yards ...

... And a dagger that he delivers straight into the beating heart of the Pasco fans celebrating in the stands. He catches the ball at the 5, and at the 20, a Pasco defender has a beeline on Sealby, and if he can just tackle him, the game figures to be over, because Wenatchee has not been able to pass the ball all night.

But rather than wrap up, the Bulldog tries to just knock Sealby down.

Big mistake No. 3.

Sealby lets the defender bounce off him, then motors down the right sideline, Rosie screeching, "No, no!" along with hundreds of Pasco fans who can't believe what is unfolding in front of them.

A 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Just like that, Pasco is down again, 28-22.

There's still a minute left, but no way can the Bulldogs bounce back after that crushing blow. Right?

Right?

A 15-yard personal foul on the return by the Bulldogs allows Wenatchee to kick the ball through the end zone on the ensuing kickoff -- no chance for any repeat heroics.

Sixty seconds. Eighty yards.

First down. Morris rolls right, stops and fires a strike to his big tight end, Jacob Price, for 33 yards, putting the ball past midfield. The crowd again roars back to life, trying to will another miracle for their team.

An incompletion follows. Then a 13-yard pass to Search. Clock stops for the first down, 40 seconds left. Morris scrambles, and Search comes back for the pass, but gets wrapped up just short of a first down.

Timeout Pasco. 32 ticks left.

Another incompletion. Then another shovel pass to Lamb -- first down at the Wenatchee 12. Morris spikes the ball. 16 seconds left. The crowd is in bedlam.

Second down. Morris throws left. The receiver isn't looking for the ball. Wenatchee's Jacob Petersen is. The ball is in his hands ... then it's not. The crowd exhales. Third down. 12 seconds left.

Third down. This time, Morris looks right for big-play man Marques Avery, who's blocked from going for the ball. Flag comes flying in. Pass interference. Ball is moved to the 6. First down, with 7 seconds left.

Pasco has a timeout, but doesn't use it. The Bulldogs have the Panthers reeling. The crowd can sense it. Pasco has survived two thrillers already this year. It's poised to pull out another crazy win.

Morris takes the snap and rolls right. The crowd is screaming for him to do something, when suddenly a lane to the end zone appears. GO! GO! the fans scream, almost in unison, hoping their words can push the senior the final 6 yards to victory.

And just as suddenly, two Panthers close in. One is -- guess who -- Sealby, who greets Morris along with teammate Noah Fenhaus at the 2-yard line.

The smacking of pads reverberates throughout the stadium. Morris goes down in a heap, no chance to fall forward or thrust the ball toward the end line, the force of the collision was that great.

One second remained on the clock. If Coach Lamb or one of the players in that split second had thought to scream timeout, the Bulldogs could have had one last chance.

But everything seemed to stop for that second, everyone stunned by the impact of that tackle, the sheer violence of the play. That second was all Wenatchee needed.

Triple zeroes. Game over.

"We're exciting," Lamb said afterward, an understatement if ever I heard one. "That's the kind of ride we've been on all year. We're selling tickets, I bet."

Wenatchee's escape act kept the Panthers on track for their date next week at the Apple Bowl with Southridge in a game that very well could decide the CBBN Columbia race.

Both teams are 3-0, 2-0 in division play, and if Wenatchee wins, I don't see any team stopping it from walking off with the title.

If Southridge wins, then the Suns still have to play Pasco in a Thursday night special in Week 6 at Edgar Brown before they can put both hands on the hardware.

I have yet to see the Suns play, but judging from the game stories of their wins over Kamiakin and Moses Lake, they are similar in style to some of the Kamiakin teams of the past few years in that they rely on defense and a punishing running game to get things done.

Both the Suns and Panthers feature big, physical line play, and I can see next week's game being a low-scoring, hard-hitting affair.

Now, if I can just convince the bosses to let me make the drive up north. I've been wanting to try Highlander Golf Course up there, so I could get a two-fer out of the deal.

Big congrats to Roger Hoell and the Othello Huskies for going into Art Fiker and knocking off Prosser 30-14. The Huskies almost knocked off the Mustangs last year in the state quarterfinals, and they finally finished the deal off in this one, running for close to 300 yards, winning the turnover battle 3-0 and weathering what I'm sure was a vocal Prosser crowd that had to have been electrified by Isaac Anderson's 61-yard TD run with 10 minutes left that closed the gap to 17-14.

The Huskies answered on their next possession, with Jeremy Cerrillo throwing a 21-yard TD pass to Matt Jensen with 6:40 left to push the lead back to 10.

Othello had lost eight straight to Prosser and last beat the Mustangs in 2003.

Not as far up north as Southridge-Wenatchee, another big game takes place next week when River View travels to Connell in a matchup of 3-0 SCAC East teams.

The Eagles have owned River View since they dropped back down to 1A three years ago. In the past three meeting, Connell has outscored River View 108-6 -- including a 33-6 win last year and a 55-0 shellacking in 2006, when River View entered the game with a 4-0 record and was exposed as paper panthers. They went on to lose three of their next four and missed out on the playoffs.

So, is this year's version of the Panthers like '06 or like '97? That's the last time they beat Connell, 6-0.

OK, it's almost 2 a.m. Time to head on home.

Til next time ...