Week 1: Dramatic overtime touchdown settles the 1st battle of 2 Tri-Cities contenders

Turnabout is fair play.

That’s basically what happened for Kamiakin on Friday night when it beat Chiawana 20-13 in overtime at Edgar Brown Stadium to open the season.

It was last year that Chiawana opened the season by coming into Lampson Stadium in Kennewick, and the Riverhawks beat the Braves 22-19 in overtime.

These are two of the better Class 4A football teams in the state of Washington, and on Friday it was pretty evident when anyone saw those defensive units.

Kamiakin’s secondary did a standout job on defensive coverages, causing Chiawana QB DJ Duran to have to hang onto the football longer than he wanted. Duran, a senior and one of the best quarterbacks in the Mid-Columbia Conference, finished 8 for 24 for 63 yards passing.

Meanwhile, junior QB Trent Woodhouse had his own problems. The Braves starter tossed five interceptions in the first half.

Woodhouse is a heck of a comeback story. He’s had knee surgery twice, including last year after the Chiawana loss.

In that game, he was named starter for the Braves as a sophomore. But he took a hit in the game and was lost for the season.

Kamiakin coach Scott Biglin gets choked up each time he talks about Woodhouse’s perseverance in coming back to get ready — not once, but twice.

So at halftime down 10-7 — Chiawana led with an Aaron Lowry field goal and an 87-yard pick-6 by Justin Webber — Biglin knew Woodhouse would be down on himself.

“To play in the first half, throw five interceptions, and we’re only down 3 points (10-7) at halftime, that’s an accomplishment,” said Biglin. “Trent is a warrior. I told him at halftime, ‘In my day, I threw six picks.’ I’m so proud of him and what he’s done to come back from knee injuries. It’s like, who cares if you threw five picks? You’re out here playing on a Friday night.”

Woodhouse had to shake it off.

“He did tell me that. They were bringing a lot of pressure on me,” said Woodhouse. “But our defense played great.”

Some games, the offense carries the weight. Other games, the defense does.

And so it was, Woodhouse shook it off.

Now down 13-7 late in the game (thanks to another Lowry field goal), Woodhouse drove the Braves downfield late in the game. He found Carter Poland open for a 12-yard touchdown pass with 1:11 to play.

Poland’s PAT kick was blocked and the game went to overtime.

Woodhouse fired the game-winning TD pass — in a roundabout way — in the OT for the win. He threw a hard pass from the 5 that went through Gavyn Buchanan’s hands, off the Chiawana defender’s helmet, and the ball popped up in the air.

Kamiakin senior Kyler Rutz adjusted his route and dived for the ball for the catch.

The Braves defense then shut down Chiawana’s offense for the win.

Chiawana coach Scott Bond wasn’t too happy with the loss.

“Our defense made enough plays that gave us enough opportunities on offense. We just couldn’t put anything together,” said Bond. “But it was the kind of practice we had this week. We chalked it up of doing the game plan (for Kamiakin) all summer. We made some bonehead plays.”

But the Riverhawks will be near the top of the standings when this season is done.

RICHLAND 35, SOUTHRIDGE 14

Josh Woodard is finally a senior. Seems like he’s been a Bomber forever. Maybe because he’s played varsity basketball since he was a freshman.

But as a football quarterback, this is Woodard’s second consecutive season as the starter.

In Saturday’s win, he passed for 243 yards, completing 13 of 19 attempts and connecting for three touchdown passes.

Richland coach Mike Neidhold says Woodard “is as good of a quarterback as we’ve ever had. You know he’s a basketball player. He sees the court like a point guard. On the football field it’s the same thing.”

Woodard found nine different receivers to complete passes to — including Colson Mackey (3 catches, 81 yards, two TDs) and sophomore Brody Bocek (3-71, one TD).

“I felt like we picked up where we left off last season,” said Woodard. “We’ve got a good mixture of seniors and younger guys, and the seniors are mentors to those young guys.”

As for his distributing the football, “I’m not looking for one guy. I’ve got to get the ball to our talented guys. And I had great protection tonight.”

That offensive line was a concern going into the season, and Neidhold — who started his coaching career as an offensive line coach — says through one game, that line looks good.

Meanwhile, Suns coach Matt Johnson had to replace a number of graduates this season.

“For a segment of these guys, this is their first time on the big stage,” said Johnson.

That includes senior running back David Sinyuk, who was playing his first ever competitive football game.

All Sinyuk did was rush 17 times for 111 yards. Impressive.

Running that Wing-T offense at Southridge can be hard to defend — Neidhold says it’s hard to replicate in practice — and in fact, the Suns had the football almost three times as long as the Bombers did in the game.

The problem? While Southridge could move the ball down the field, there were too many offensive penalties that stalled drives out.

“We shot ourselves in the foot tonight. That’s on us coaches and the seniors,” said Johnson.

On to Week 2.

KENNEWICK 59, PASCO 14

Ambrose Driver made the point Thursday night that at least half of the members of Kennewick’s football team have been playing varsity for three years.

Now throw in the deep postseason runs the past few years the Lions have had — which amounts to at least an extra month of practices and games — and Driver and his teammates want to remind everyone that Kennewick is going to have a say about the Mid-Columbia Conference title.

“We’re definitely slept on,” said Driver, who was 12 for 16 for 192 yards and two touchdown passes in the season opener.

The other two stars for the Lions on offense were junior running back Alex Roberts (10 carries, 66 yards rushing and a TD, plus 2 catches for 25 yards and another TD); and senior David Wacenske (4 catches, 71 yards and two great leaping TD catches).

Defensively, sophomore Cooper Neer led the way at linebacker with 3 tackles (1 for loss) and an interception.

“Our defense is good, even though it might be a little bit young,” said Driver.

Kennewick coach Randy Affholter says that’s OK.

“We’re older and more mature,” he said. “A lot of these kids played a lot last year.”

Meanwhile, Pasco carries 28 underclassmen on its roster.

“We are so young,” said Bulldogs head coach Leon Wright-Jackson. “We’ve just got to keep pushing. We work hard. And they didn’t quit. At halftime (trailing 52-7) we told the kids to don’t pay attention to the scoreboard.”

Sophomore QB Junior Olvera passed for 144 yards, and senior wideout Rafael Vargas caught 3 passes for 69 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown play late in the game.

Junior LB Jake Raymond had 5 tackles to lead the Bulldogs defense.

HERMISTON 21, HANFORD 12

Hermiston coach David Faaeteete believes this is the Bulldogs’ season to make a run for the playoffs, and the team got off to a good start on Thursday.

Junior QB Issac Corey rushed for two touchdowns and connected with Nathan Waelty for a 32-yard scoring strike to build on a 21-0 lead.

But in the fourth quarter, host Hanford made some noise. Eli Perkes connected with Kaden Castro for an 8-yard TD pass; and Caden Wilson bulled in from the 2 for another score to close the gap before time expired.

WEST VALLEY-YAKIMA 30, WALLA WALLA 0

The visiting Rams came out of Borleske Stadium with the non-league win.

The Blue Devils had just 107 yards of total offense.