Asotin avalanche swallows Broncos' halftime edge

RITZVILLE - With one half in the books for last Friday's 2B state playoff opener, there was little reason to believe the Lind-Ritzville Broncos and Asotin Panthers weren't headed toward a fantastic finish.

The teams had played a tense, defensive-minded affair in week two of the regular season, with the Panthers winning 14-6 on their home field. In Friday's rematch at Jimmie Snider Field, the Broncos carried a 7-6 lead into the break following 24 minutes of hard-hitting football.

But the second half was an entirely different story. Asotin, the defending state champions, scored the final 31 points and moved into the quarterfinals with a 37-7 thumping.

Asotin (9-2 overall) made its move with just over a minute gone in the third quarter. The Panthers forced an immediate punt, broke through Lind-Ritzville's line to stuff the kick and took over at the Bronco 11.

"One of our kids missed an assignment," Broncos head coach Greg Whitmore said of the blocked punt. "Football is a game of momentum and they got the momentum."

Two plays later, Asotin's Cole Caldwell scored on a 14-yard pass from quarterback Creighton Alford, giving the Panthers a 13-7 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, Asotin's Johannes Kolter blasted a laser beam directly into the Broncos' front line. The ball caromed off Lind-Ritzville's Jordan Bilodeaux and into the waiting arms of DJ Darnall, giving the Panthers possession at Bronco 48.

It took just three plays for Asotin to capitalize. Jared Lutes went 38 yards on a slip screen pass, and Alford called his own number for a 7-yard touchdown run on second-and-goal.

In less than three minutes, the Broncos' one-point lead had turned into a 13-point deficit. That forced Lind-Ritzville to do some things it didn't want to do offensively, and it showed in the final statistics as quarterback Mike Osborn was intercepted three times.

"When they get the lead…all of sudden they can start pressuring like crazy," Whitmore said. "They can blitz a little more. They can take more chances."

Trailing 23-7 early in the fourth quarter, the Broncos still had a glimmer of hope. That hope was wiped out as the Panthers pressured Osborn on a screen pass, and the errant throw floated right into the path of Asotin's Justin Word. He returned the interception 30 yards to the end zone and the Panthers had an all-but-insurmountable lead of 30-7 with 8:41 to play.

"They just come at you. They're big, physical kids," Whitmore said of the Panthers. "To beat a good football team like this, you've got to have some luck, and we didn't have any."

Early on, Lind-Ritzville didn't need good fortune to stay close. Asotin used Darnall's legs and Alford's arm to drive to the Bronco 5, but Erik Hille stuffed Darnall on third down and Alford's pass to Trevor Probert on fourth down fell incomplete.

The Broncos mounted their first serious threat early in the second period. Isaiah Grant, who carried 16 times for 56 yards in his final high school game, converted a third-and-1 play with a 13-yard scamper. Osborn made an excellent play-action fake and hit Trace Jones with a 40-yard bomb down the middle, setting up Lind-Ritzville at the Panther 16.

But a pair of penalties - the Broncos finished the game with six for 50 yards - stalled the drive. Asotin immediately went to work, driving 80 yards and scoring when Darnall went off the right side from 16 yards out. Kolter missed the extra point, leaving Asotin's lead at 6-0.

The Broncos responded with a 72-yard march. Aided by a pass interference penalty, a 24-yard Grant run and a 29-yard pass to Alex Pfeifer, Lind-Ritzville drove deep into Asotin territory.

Osborn found Matt Saetre for 16 yards on fourth-and-11, and Grant finished the drive with a 2-yard plunge up the middle. Izzy Valdivinos' kick put the Broncos up 7-6.