Kamiakin beats Chiawana in first big MCC showdown of 2021 season

Kamiakin’s football team showed fans Thursday night that if someone is going to beat the Braves, they better not make any mistakes.

But that didn’t happen to visiting Chiawana, which turned the ball over three times in the third quarter alone, as Kamiakin scored 19 unanswered points en route to a 46-24 Mid-Columbia Conference win over the Riverhawks at Lampson Stadium in Kennewick.

The victory stopped Chiawana’s 19-game win streak in MCC regular season play, and handed the Riverhawks’ Scott Bond his first loss as a head coach (he’s now 7-1).

“You can’t overcome three turnovers against a team like Kamiakin,” said Bond after the game.

Before that, in the first half, the game was a back and forth affair.

Kamiakin senior quarterback Henry Mercado tossed three touchdown passes in the first half — one each to Fabian Hernandez, Aidan Canada and Gabe Tahir.

Tahir’s TD was the most electric. He caught a quick out from Mercado, and tried to make his way up the right side of the field. Tahir, the younger brother of former Kamiakin star Tuna Altahir, broke two tackles but then reversed course across the field.

The junior picked up a wall of blockers and ran 42 yards for the touchdown.

Not bad for a guy who never wanted to be on offense to start with.

“He didn’t want to play receiver this year,” Kamiakin coach Scott Biglin said of the standout defensive back being recruited by Penn State, Oregon and UCLA, among other schools. “I told him ‘You’re too good of an athlete not to play receiver.”

Tahir finished with 4 catches for 120 yards.

“On that (touchdown) play, I had tunnel vision,” Tahir said. “It was just me against the defenders.”

Still, Chiawana quarterback JP Zamora wasn’t about to get blown out in the first half. He marched the Riverhawks down the field on a scoring drive that lasted 78 yards and six plays. Running back Ian Mohl culminated the drive by getting into the end zone on a 1-yard run as time expired.

Suddenly, it was a tight game, with Kamiakin leading 20-17 at intermission.

Biglin told his team that momentum looked like it was switching and the Braves needed to do something to get it back in the third quarter.

So Kamiakin took the kickoff and marched 74 yards on five plays. It finished with a Payton Graham 33-yard TD run. Graham had just stepped in for Mercado, who was suffering from leg cramps.

Then, the Braves defense took over. In the next three series for Chiawana:

• Graham intercepted a Zamora pass that bounced of the back of defensive lineman Aaron Tano;
• Linebacker E.J. Hawkins forced a fumble from Mohl;
• And Hawkins forced another fumble from Zamora.

The Braves turned two of those turnovers into 13 points — Mercado on a 9-yard TD run, and a Mercado to Canada 21-yard TD pass — and the rout was on with a 39-17 lead.

“E.J. Is a next-level linebacker for us,” Biglin said. “He’s unbelievable.”

Hawkins — a senior who was first-team All-MCC at linebacker last spring — says this is his defense.

“The key for us was keeping JP (Zamora) and his playmaking in check,” Hawkins said. “We needed to keep him in the pocket. He’s probably the best quarterback we’ll face this season until we get to the playoffs.”

It’s hard to hold a quarterback of Zamora’s status down, and he still had some good stats: 248 yards passing and two TD passes.

But Mercado was just as good, if not better, for Kamiakin. He had 227 yards passing, tossed four TD passes (two to Canada), rushed for 48 more yards, and scored a touchdown himself.

Kamiakin’s play on both sides of the ball — although being a small sample size of two games — has given the Braves some extra confidence.

“No disrespect, but I feel that we’re a better team than we were last year,” Hawkins said. “We gained a lot of experience last year, and I will say that our veterans are helping the young guys to come along.”

That’s bad news for the rest of the MCC.

Notes

Hawkins finished with 6 tackles and the two forced fumbles … Teammate LB Kale Crawford added 7 tackles (one for loss) and a forced fumble. … Tano had 4 tackles (2 for loss) and a tipped pass. … Kamiakin DB Elijah Allen added 6 tackles. … Chiawana’s Mohl rushed 12 times for 89 yards. … Bond praised WR Marco Elizondo for his breakout game. The junior caught 10 passes for 122 yards and a 24-yard TD catch. “He plays like that every day in practice,” said Bond. … Sophomore LB Hunter Taylor led the Riverhawks with 5 tackles (1 for loss), while junior LB Judah Bishop added 5 tackles. … Kamiakin travels to Richland next Friday, while Chiawana will host Hermiston the same night.

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 12:57 PM.