Despite injury bug, Odessa wallops Wellpinit

| October 22, 2007 9:00 PM

WELLPINIT - Injuries continue taking their toll on the Odessa Tigers, but head coach Bruce Todd is hoping his football team can make it through the final two weeks of Northeast 1B action unscathed.

The top-ranked Tigers moved to 7-0 on Friday, downing the Wellpinit Redskins 50-12. Playing without five starters on both sides of the ball, Odessa started slowly and found itself in a 12-12 tie after one quarter.

"I was not very happy with the first quarter," Todd said. "We were very flat."

The Redskins opened the scoring on a 52-yard touchdown pass on which the Tigers missed several tackles. Odessa responded as Ryan King hit Andy McClure with a 24-yard scoring pass and then scampered 61 yards for a score.

Disaster struck on Odessa's next threat as Wellpinit's T.J. Flett intercepted King and returned it 95 yards to the end zone.

Odessa, however, didn't panic and restored a 26-12 lead at the halftime break Seth Hauge barreled in from 5 yards out and Alex Null scored from 6 yards out.

The Tigers dominated from there, getting a 32-yard pass play from King to Travis Todd in the third period. Null added a 4-yard TD in the fourth and Justin Karnitz - who led Odessa with 136 yards on 17 carries - scored from 5 yards out.

Odessa piled up 392 rushing yards. Null had 97 yards on 12 carries, King 82 yards on nine touches, and Travis Todd 46 yards on eight touches.

King was 7 of 12 through the air for 140 yards, hooking up four times for 86 yards with Travis Todd.

Aaron Bruya had a team-high 12 tackles and two interceptions for Odessa. McClure added 11 tackles, while Travis Todd and Karnitz had 10 tackles apiece. Todd also had an interception.

Odessa was missing starting tailback Jacob Schmidt, who was out with a sprained knee ligament. Defensive line captain Andy Read was also out with a concussion. Bruce Todd plans to keep both out of action for the remainder of the regular season.

"That's my hope, is just to rest them and have them healthy for when we go into playoffs," he said.

The Tigers hit the road this Friday for a 3 p.m. kickoff with the Inchelium Hornets.