Kamiakin beats Richland in offensive shootout + Chiawana, Kennewick keep pace with wins

This summer, Camden Schmidt was ready to spend his senior season with the Kamiakin receiving corps.

He would have been happy running routes and playing in the Braves defensive secondary.

But sometimes things change: in this case Schmidt’s teammate (and fellow senior) Makram Altahir suffered a bad ankle sprain.

In Scott Biglin’s Plan B, Schmidt became the remedy at running back and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

On Friday night, Schmidt carried the football 28 times for 273 yards rushing, in which he scampered 75 yards in the third quarter for a back-breaking touchdown in Kamiakin’s 42-35 wild shootout victory over host Richland at Fran Rish Stadium.

It leaves the Braves with a 6-1 Mid- Columbia Conference (6-2 overall), and they’re sitting atop the standings with Chiawana and Kennewick. Both of those teams are 6-1 in MCC play, and 7-1 overall.

All Kamiakin has to do is beat Pasco this Friday, and the Braves will clinch the MCC’s No. 1 seed into the District 5/6/8 Class 4A crossover playoff games.

That happens even if Chiawana beats visiting Walla Walla this Friday, since the Braves opened the season Sept. 1 with a 20-13 overtime victory over the Riverhawks.

Kennewick, being a Class 3A team, has clinched the MCC’s top seed in that classification.

Biglin, Kamiakin’s head coach, had one goal in mind after his Braves lost 20-14 to Kennewick back on Sept. 22.

“We want to be the top 4A seed heading into postseason,” Biglin had said.

Now that goal has almost been achieved.

KAMIAKIN 42, RICHLAND 35

Like the previous week when they faced Hermiston standout junior quarterback Issac Corey, the Braves had to try to stop another top QB on Friday in Richland senior Josh Woodard.

“(Woodard) is a very good quarterback. He’s scary and so dang good,” said Biglin.

There’s a reason. Woodard fired four TD passes in the first half, giving Richland a 27-21 lead heading into halftime.

But Biglin has some good assistants.

“Our defense, they’re a smart group of guys,” he said. “They were making changes at halftime on a whiteboard.”

Schmidt, who was in the secondary, said the move was obvious.

“(Woodard) kept bombing us over the top, so we moved to two safeties back high,” said Schmidt.

What happened was Woodard couldn’t move the offense in the second half. The Bombers punted or tried to punt — a bad snap forced an ill-conceived fake punt attempt — three out of their first four offensive series coming out of halftime.

The other series ended with Walker Fabrri intercepting Woodard’s pass into the end zone to stop the fourth drive.

Meanwhile, Kamiakin wasted little time coming out of intermission.

Braves QB Trent Woodhouse connected with Gavyn Buchanan for a 19-yard TD pass on the team’s first series. That gave Kamiakin a 28-27 lead.

On the next series, Schmidt took the spotlight, as well as the football, in racing 75 yards for another touchdown.

“My linemen opened up a huge gap for me to run through,” said Schmidt. “It was huge. These guys (on the line) are the best in the state. We want the No. 1 seed so much. It was our end goal, and after the loss to Kennewick, we learned from it.”

Schmidt would add a 1-yard TD run a few series later, and despite a desperate rally to close the gap by the Bombers, Kamiakin won.

“Camden Schmidt is a warrior,” said Biglin. “He came in when we needed him at running back. He’s a selfless player, and we all saw that tonight.”

Richland actually had a chance to tie the game in the final minutes, but Woodard’s pass attempt over the middle was picked off by Carter Poland at the goal line to clinch the win.

“Carter Poland told me in the third quarter ‘Coach, I’m gonna be hurting tomorrow.’ I told him that’s how it goes,” said Biglin. “He’s a special player. He went from being our quarterback last year to wide receiver. He’s so selfless. He did it for the team.”

Richland coach Mike Neidhold, whose team drops to 5-3 in MCC and overall play, said there was no one to blame for this loss except themselves.

“We made our mistakes in the second half,” said Neidhold. “And we gave up a special teams score (a 68-yard kickoff return by Kamiakin’s Robert Julima) in the first half. It came down to one play again for us. In the three games we’ve lost, it’s been one play each time. But give Kamiakin credit.”

Besides Schmidt’s big numbers, Woodhouse finished with 208 passing yards and three TD passes. Buchanan led the way with 5 catches for 65 yards and two touchdown catches.

Braves linebacker Mason Grigg led the defense with 12 tackles (3 for loss) and a quarterback sack.

Woodard was once again outstanding, completing 25 of 40 pass attempts for 384 yards and five touchdown passes.

Colson Mackey caught eight of his passes for 156 yards and two TDs, while Chris Daniels added 6 catches for 90 yards.

Richland — which plays at Mountain View in Vancouver at 4:30 p.m., Friday — had great defensive efforts by linebackers Cannon Weikum (16 tackles) and Sylen Kissel-Kauhane (11 tackles).

MID-COLUMBIA CONFERENCE

Chiawana 6-1 MCC, 7-1 overall

Kennewick 6-1, 7-1

Kamiakin 6-1, 6-2

Richland 5-3, 5-3

Hermiston 4-3, 4-4

Hanford 2-5, 2-6

Pasco 2-5, 2-6

Southridge 1-6, 1-7

Walla Walla 0-7, 0-8

Friday, Oct. 20: Hanford 33, Walla Walla 14; Hermiston 49, Pasco 13; Kamiakin 42, Richland 35; Kennewick 55, Southridge 6.

Saturday, Oct. 21: Chiawana 14, Mount Si 12.

Thursday, Oct. 26: Southridge at Hanford, 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 27: Kennewick at Hermiston, 7 p.m.; Pasco at Kamiakin, Lampson Stadium, 7 p.m.; Richland at Mountain View, Vancouver, 4:30 p.m.; Walla Walla at Chiawana, Edgar Brown Stadium, 7 p.m.

KENNEWICK 55, SOUTHRIDGE 6: Alex Roberts had a big game for the visiting Lions, rushing 18 times for 246 yards and scoring three touchdowns.

Kennewick quarterback Ambrose Driver added 147 yards passing and two TD passes; while receiver David Wacenske had 5 catches for 61 yards and a score.

For Southridge, Austin Guier passed for 115 yards, and Kyle Reibolt scored on a 1-yard touchdown run.

CHIAWANA 14, MT. SI 12: Gage Williams scored on a short TD run, Rylen Blair caught a 34-yard TD pass from Julien Martinez, and Mason Tovar’s interception at the end of the game clinched the non-league win for the Riverhawks on Saturday afternoon.

HERMISTON 49, PASCO 13: Issac Corey had three touchdown passes and ran for another as visiting Hermiston raced out to a 42-0 lead and never looked back for the win.

Corey was almost perfect passing, going 25-for-29 for 245 yards. He also rushed 5 times for 30 yards.

Landon Shilhanek caught 6 passes for 75 yards for Hermiston.

Joey Goin caught 4 passes for 105 yards, including an 80-yard scoring play from Junior Olvera, to lead Pasco.

HANFORD 33, WALLA WALLA 14: Karter Coffman rushed for 159 yards on just 14 carries, Eli Perkes passed for 172 yards, and Preston Bryant caught 8 passes for 112 yards as Hanford beat Walla Walla on Friday.

Kaden Castro scored twice on touchdown runs for the Falcons.

This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 12:57 PM.