2 thrilling last-minute victories highlight Mid-Columbia football’s 1st weekend
Mike Neidhold said the 17-16 win his Richland Bombers football team pulled off Saturday afternoon was the perfect example of a good team playing bad, but still finding a way to win.
“This is the 87th year of Richland High School football,” said Neidhold while standing on the floor of the newly remodeled Fran Rish Stadium. “This place has had some of the most epic games in my life.”
Count Saturday’s win among them.
The Bombers never had the lead until there was just 57.4 seconds left in the game.
That’s when kicker Jason Slack hammered through a 23-yard field goal for the victory.
Meanwhile, Southridge head coach Matt Johnson and his Suns will be thinking about how they let this one get away.
Johnson, the second-year head coach at the south Kennewick school, had tinkered a bit last year with his team’s offense in slowly bringing in the Wing-T offense.
Now?
“It’s all in there now,” said Johnson. “I told the guys I was super proud of them. We have worked hard all off-season.”
That Suns offense ran 57 plays to the Bombers’ 43.
Southridge also had the ball for 28 minutes and 8 seconds, compared to Richland’s 19:52.
That meant the Bombers defense spent a lot of time on the field.
And it showed in the first half, as the Suns led 9-0 at intermission, thanks to a James Rush 6-yard TD run, and a Brady Bostic 21-yard field goal near the end of the second quarter.
“That’s a credit to Matt and his staff,” said Neidhold. “He’s doing great work over there.”
But being down two scores means Richland was still in the game. And less than two minutes into the third quarter, the Bombers defense found the end zone.
Suns quarterback Austin Guier lost the football during a bad handoff, and Landon Charlton picked the football up and ran it back for a 23-yard TD.
Southridge stayed the course, though. And the Suns would march downfield on a 15-play, 80-yard scoring drive — capped off by Rush’s 2-yard TD dive.
Now trailing 16-7, Richland needed to find the end zone again.
It happened with 6:18 to play, when Bombers QB Josh Woodard found Rayce Reeves streaking down the field for a 40-yard touchdown pass.
“They had a one-high safety,” said Neidhold. “So we ran four verticals. Josh got the safety to move and then threw the ball to the right guy.”
Now knocking on the door, Richland’s defense forced a 3-and-out on the Suns. The Bombers had the ball with 4:24 to play at the Suns’ 45.
Using the clock to its advantage, Richland moved 39 yards in seven plays, with Slack kicking the game-winner.
Richland senior Tanner Schuster then clinched the win when he intercepted a pass.
Woodard finished with 144 yards passing, while Charlton rushed 16 times for 60 yards.
Rush ended the day with 124 yards rushing on 27 carries, while Lucien Cone added 85 yards rushing on 12 carries.
Defensively, linebacker Kelani Steward had a monster game for the Bombers with 17 tackles, two for loss. Charlton had 4 tackles and a fumble recovery, while Isaya Galvez added 5 tackles and a cover; and Zane Weikum had 5 tackles (1 for loss).
Bryan Beardsley led the Suns defense with 5 tackles, 2 covers and an interception; AJ Hendrickson added 5 tackles (1 for loss), and Gunnar Beauchamp had 4 tackles, a pass breakup and a cover.
CHIAWANA 22, KAMIAKIN 19 (OT)
Saturday’s game was the second tight game in two nights of what are considered some of the best teams in the Mid-Columbia Conference.
On Friday night, Chiawana used a 20-yard Aaron Lowry field goal in overtime to give the visiting Riverhawks the opening night win.
Both teams struggled against each other all game.
“I asked our guys at halftime, ‘How many penalties do we have?’” said Chiawana head coach Scott Bond. “I mean, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot in the first half. Turns out, we were not only playing a good Kamiakin team, but we were also playing a very bad Chiawana team.”
The answer for Bond’s question was 80 yards on 9 penalties, and the Riverhawks would finish with 17 penalties for 133 yards.
Now throw in the heat.
Game-time temperatures started at 92 degrees, and only dropped 10 degrees the rest of the night (a big reason kickoff was pushed back to 8 p.m.).
The result was plenty of stoppage of the game clock as players from both sides kept suffering from leg cramps. There couldn’t have been enough pickle juice on either sideline.
The host Braves seemed to move the ball at will in the first half, and sophomore starting quarterback Trent Woodhouse connected with Fabian Hernandez on a 35-yard TD pass to open the scoring. Unfortunately, the PAT snap was fumbled.
On the next Kamiakin series, Woodhouse was hit late on a targeting call that resulted in a Chiawana player ejected from the game. However, Woodhouse was done for the night.
Junior backup QB Carter Poland stepped in and got the Braves another TD with a 7-yard strike to Hernandez.
Chiawana finally got going in the second quarter, as DJ Duran hit Kade Smith on a slant pattern. Smith reached back behind him to grab the pass with one hand, and he raced 73 yards down to the Kamiakin 3.
Two plays later, senior running back Ian Mohl dived in from the 2 for a touchdown to cut the Braves lead to 12-7.
It would be the first of three touchdowns by Mohl, which included a 68-yard burst up the middle late in the third quarter.
“We were just not doing what we were supposed to do in the first half,” said Mohl, who finished with 22 carries for 133 yards rushing. “We didn’t change schemes. We started playing harder, and we stopped being lazy.”
In the second half, Chiawana picked things up on the defensive side.
“It was a tough way for the defense to set up,” Bond said. “It’s not like we were hitting tackle dummies out here. They just had to catch up with the speed. And in the end, we won the turnover battle.”
Indeed. Kamiakin picked off two Duran passes. But the Hawks recovered three Braves fumbles, and had an interception.
The biggest turnover came in overtime.
With Kamiakin starting from the Chiawana 25 in the Kansas Plan overtime, Riverhawks defensive lineman Cyrus Pardini blasted through the right side of the line and hit Poland, who fumbled the football. Fellow lineman Lane Hedrick recovered the ball, ending Kamiakin’s drive.
It took Chiawana six plays to get to the 3-yard line, setting up Lowry’s game-winning 20-yard field goal.
In the Mid-Columbia Conference, there are just too many good teams that will battle for playoff spots. So this loss won’t kill Kamiakin’s season. And Braves coach Scott Biglin knows he has a young team.
“I told the kids after the game ‘Don’t be satisfied we were in the game,’” said Biglin. “Be upset that we lost, because I think we have high expectations.”
NOTES: Chiawana’s Braxton Feldmann led the Riverhawks D with 6 tackles, a pass breakup and a fumble recovery. … Teammate Hunter Taylor added 4 tackles (1 for loss), a QB sack, and a hurry. … Kamiakin’s Devin Crow led the Braves D with 7 tackles (1 for loss), and a QB sack. … Fabian Hernandez caught 9 passes for Kamiakin for 98 yards and two touchdowns. … Teammate Walker Fabrri rushed 9 times for 73 yards.
HERMISTON 35, HANFORD 28
Sophomore Isaac Corey found Landon Schilhanek for a 35-yard TD pass with 40 seconds left to give host Hermiston the MCC win.
Corey finished 16-for-27 passing for 230 yards and four TD passes.
Caden Wilson led the Falcons by scoring on TD runs of 8, 10 and 8 yards. Eli Perks tossed a 35-yard TD pass to Preston Bryan to account for the other score.
KENNEWICK 43, PASCO 0
Andre Breedlove tossed touchdown passes to four different players — Dane McClure, Aiden Garcia, Jon Wright and David Wacenske — as the visiting Lions rolled to victory.
Wacenske also scored on a fumble recovery, as did Ashton Tripp.
WEST VALLEY-YAKIMA 34, WALLA WALLA 0
Skylar Cassel passed for 323 yards and four touchdowns in the non-league win over visiting Walla Walla.
Other games
College Place 57, Mac-Hi 0: no report
Dayton-Waitsburg 34, Granger 0: no report
Liberty Christian 66, Yakama Nation Tribal 0: Keegan Bishop was 6-for-9 passing for 198 yards and 6 TD passes. … Charlie Branning added 3 rushes for 66 yards, 1 reception for 57 yards, and 3 TDs. … Drew Ott added 3 receptions for 83 yards and 3 TDs. … Sam Culver 2 catches, 80 yards and 2 TDs. … Defensive end Joey Isley had 7 tackles (6 for loss).
Okanogan 47, Columbia-Burbank 6: no report
Prosser 20, Sunnyside 12: Kory McClure passed for 139 yards and 3 TDs to lead visiting Prosser to the non-league win. … Brent Maldonado led the Grizzlies with 255 passing yards and 2 TD passes. Teammate Noah McNair caught 10 passes for 134 yards.
River View 26, Kiona-Benton 0: no report
Royal 34, Toppenish 6: On Thursday night, Dylan Allred passed for 313 yards and three TD passes, and rushed for two more scores, as visiting Royal beat Toppenish. … Edgar Delarosa had 7 catches for 138 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Sunnyside Christian 52, Tekoa-Rosalia 30: No report
Tri-Cities Prep 20, Umatilla 7: no report
Wahluke 21, Grandview 19: Alex Garcia rushed for 155 yards and Nate Rodriguez passed for 153, but it wasn’t enough as the visiting Greyhound fell to the Warriors.
Warden 20, White Swan 14: no report
This story was originally published September 4, 2022 at 11:47 AM.