It only took one season for Tri-City Rush to earn the conference title

For Brandon Tate, the dream season was completed Saturday night.

And for the first time since 2005, the Tri-Cities has an indoor football championship.

Tate’s team, the Tri-City Rush, outlasted the defending American West Football Conference champion Idaho Horsemen by a 36-27 score on Saturday at the HAPO Center in Pasco.

“That was definitely a low score for indoor football,” Tate said. “It was quite the game. Very intense.”

In fact, Idaho had a 19-14 lead entering the fourth quarter.

In indoor football, there are many times in which the team with the ball at the end has a chance to win the game.

The Rush made sure that wouldn’t be a factor.

Tri-City quarterback Les Obie — who would end up being the Offensive MVP of the game — connected with DeShon Williams for a 35-yard touchdown pass. A successful 2-point conversion later, and the Rush held a 22-19 lead.

The hosts would never again lose the lead, but the verdict definitely was in doubt until the final minutes.

Tri-City defensive end Zeus Jackson forced a fumble in the Idaho end zone that teammate Dallon Grinder recovered for another TD and a 29-19 lead.

Still, Idaho came back to score again, cutting the Rush lead to 29-27.

It wasn’t until the closing minutes that Obie broke free on a keeper for a 40-yard TD run to clinch the victory.

Rush linebacker A.J. Smiley was named Defensive Player of the Game for his two interceptions in the fourth quarter, stopping Idaho drives.

There were other great stories, Tate said.

“Danny Engel took over as defensive coordinator in Week 3, and our defensive unit played well the rest of the way,” Tate said. “Riley Brown was our third-string kicker coming into the championship. Then our first-team kicker got Covid, and our second-team kicker pulled a glute muscle in warmups.”

Didn’t matter. Brown came through for the Rush.

Tate said his players knew what they had to do, and he just reminded them before the kickoff.

“I told them to just focus on their jobs,” he said. “Offense needs to do its job by scoring. Defense needed to do its job by getting stops.”

It’s been a whirlwind year for the Rush, which Tate started when he got an invitation to join the AWFC.

Starting from scratch, Tate and his staff had to find a place to play, locate a playing surface and dasherboards, put together a roster, sell tickets, and find a place for the players to live.

That latter part is not cheap.

“Housing was a big part of our budget,” Tate said. “It was something we really had to figure out. Finally, we got a deal to house them at the Red Lion in Pasco.”

Even with everything in place, the Rush had to wait an extra month to start its season, thanks to delays caused by COVID.

Then throw in the extra month for the playoffs, and it’s been quite an extended season.

Tate, who also owns a semipro football team called the Tri-City Rage, had planned on coaching both indoor and outdoor teams. But the Rage wasn’t able to play this season, and likely helped with Tate maintaining his health.

Ironically, the area’s first indoor football team, the Tri-Cities Fever — with Dan Whitsett as the team’s head coach — won its National Indoor Football League title in its inaugural season, 2005.

So here is the list of players who earned a championship ring: DB Carlos Anderson, MLB Layton Brown, K Riley Brown, OL Joshua Davis, RB Keithon Flemming, WR Manuel Flores, RB Marco Garcia, K Ryan Gibson, DL Dallon Grinder, DL Leon “Zeus” Jackson, OL Kobryn Kamai, WR Michael Kernan, DL Christian Lassiter, DB Tyler Merkel, OL Josh Oatis, QB Les Obie, OL Adam Peters, DB Marcellus Pippins, WR Dashun Salgado Jr., LB A.J. Smiley, DL Noke Tago, DB Elix Wade, WR Antoine Wafer, and WR DeShon Williams.

Team staff consists of Tate, the owner, head coach and offensive coordinator; general manager Matthew Cooley; defensive coach Danny Engel; OL coach Alec Husser; assistant OL coach Steven Nundahl; assistant offensive coordinator James Roberson; assistant GM Selena Schultz; equipment manager Derek Seely; running backs coach Myke Summers; defensive line coach John Williams; team filmed Tommy Wolf; and hydration specialist Robert Yanez.

It’s said that sometimes the journey is a lot better than reaching the destination.

But for Brandon Tate and the Tri-City Rush, they got a kick out of both the journey and the destination.

He expects many of his players to return for the 2022 season, which might see the league roster go up to six teams.

“The majority of our guys are coming back,” Tate said. “A lot of leagues and teams don’t have the access to physical therapy like we do.”

But there won’t be much time to enjoy the spoils of this victory.

“We have a tryout camp (for the 2022 season) in about 30 days,” Tate said.

Prep football

The majority of area high school football teams play Friday night this week. But there are a few contests on tap for Thursday night.

River View visits Wahluke (7 p.m. kickoff) in a non-league contest, while Sunnyside Christian kicks off at Soap Lake at 6 p.m. in a non-league 8-man game.

By far, though, is the biggest game of the week when Chiawana (1-0) visits Kamiakin (1-0) at Lampson Stadium at 7 p.m. Thursday.

These are two of the top teams in the state, and feature outstanding athletes on both sides of the ball.

Kamiakin’s defense — led by the linebacking trio of Luis Salgado, Kale Crawford and E.J. Hawkins — must try to find a way to stop Chiawana quarterback J.P. Zamora.

Meanwhile, the Riverhawks defense — which also has standout linebackers in Jerry Alonso and Isaac Hoag — has to find a way to stop the Braves’ high-powered offense.

That starts with quarterback Henry Mercado, who does a great job of distributing the ball to a number of receivers. Salgado was impressive at running back last week at Hermiston.

And then there is Payton Graham, who will be on the field somewhere.

Graham scored TD’s three different ways last week for Kamiakin: rushing, receiving and a blocked field goal return.

Sidenote: Chiawana comes into the contest riding a 19-game win streak in Mid-Columbia Conference regular season contests. Riverhawks’ Scott Bond, who took over for Steve Graff in 2020, is 7-0 now as a head coach.

More NWAC signings

▪ Kennewick High grad Kayden Mitchell is playing baseball for Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton.

▪ Chiawana’s Steve Ndayishimiye will be playing men’s soccer at CBC.

▪ College Place graduate Madilyn Rae Neil will be playing volleyball and women’s basketball at Olympic Community College.

▪ Pasco High grad Ashtyn Nelson will be playing women’s basketball at CBC.