Thunder strips lead from Riverhawks
Thunder 26 Riverhawks 20
LAPWAI, Idaho — The Columbia Basin Riverhawks led the first half before penalties allowed the Palouse Thunder to overtake them during the Evergreen Football League game Saturday.
"We lost the lead and couldn't get far enough back and lost 26-20," said Riverhawks coach Jim Whitaker. "We scored two touchdowns which were called back on penalties."
In the first quarter, the Riverhawks were finding trouble with their run game and changed to passing. On the 3 yard line, a pass From Czac Conley to Emerson Ferguson scored the first touchdown of the game. The Riverhawks missed the point-after kick, leaving the score 6-0.
Whitaker said the Riverhawks were moving to score again at the beginning of the second quarter. From the 3 yard line, another pass from Conley to Ferguson scores another touchdown and a conversion run, which added two more points to expand the lead to 14-0.
The Thunder came back with a long run after a pass completion to score their first touchdown. The Riverhawks block the kick and the score remained in the Riverhawks favor 14-6.
A turning point came when a Riverhawks receiver appeared to be held around the waist by a Thunder cornerback, which lead to an interception and defensive touchdown, said Whitaker. The Riverhawks responded by stopping the 2-point conversion, leaving the score 14-12 .
On one of the final drives of the half, Riverhawk Ike Moss made an interception. The Riverhawks rushed the quarterback, making pressure and forced a bad throw to allow the interception and a defensive touchdown.
While running up the sidelines, a Riverhawk well behind the play blocked someone in the back, right in front of the side judge, said Whitaker. It negated the touchdown.
"We did much better than last week, except for having people falling down … we were controlling the game," said Whitaker.
In the third quarter, the Thunder adjusted away from running up the hash marks. The change worked for Palouse, said Whitaker.
On a kickoff return, the Thunder ran up the sidelines 80 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.
A Riverhawks touchdown in the third quarter was reversed on a penalty, said Whitaker. After a 56 yard bootleg pass, a Riverhawks player was called for holding at the line of scrimmage.
Riverhawk Josh Bisnett strips the ball and runs for the end zone just to loose it when a Thunder player punches it out of his possession. Riverhawk Ryan Whitaker grabs it, then loses it and it becomes a scramble for the fumble until Palouse recovers it inside the Thunder six yard line.
"We had some football follies kind of stuff and the crowd seemed to like it," said Whitaker.
On the first Palouse possession in the fourth quarter, the Thunder scored on a 5 yard run, coupled with a successful point-after kick, the score moved to 26-14.
The Riverhawks drive the field afterwards setting up Jeff Nelson for a 2 yard run. Whitaker said he pounded it into the end zone to add another six points.
A third interception of Conley ended another drive on the 2 yard line toward the end of the game.
"We were much improved. I believe this team (Thunder) is better than the Spokane team," said Whitaker. "I very, very much believe, except for a couple of mistakes, we could have won."
For the Riverhawks, quarterback Conley made 17 throws out of 37 attempts for 221 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Riverhawks rushed 27 times for 163 yards and one rushing touchdown. Nelson ran for all but one carry, which was Conley scrambling from the pocket.
Riverhawks' receiver Ferguson caught 10 receptions for 229 yards, two catches for touchdowns.
Whitaker said he is trying to adjust the team with losing players to injuries and having fewer to rotate than other teams, before they take on State Line at home Saturday starting at 3 p.m.
The Riverhawks added Spencer Larson, a former Royal City player, to the team. The team also lost Justin Williams after he re-injured his knee in the game against the Thunder. Whitaker said they have probably lost him for the season.
The Riverhawks host the State Line Miners next Saturday in Moses Lake, kickoff is 3 p.m.