Kittitas grounds Soap Lake Eagles

Almira/Coulee-Hartline 36, Valley Christian 25; Odessa 40, Sprague-Harrington 6

KITTITAS, Wash. — After starting the 2009 season with four consecutive victories, the Soap Lake Eagles are staring down their first losing streak of the year following a 55-12 loss to Central Washington 2B Conference rival Kittitas Friday night. 

The Eagles opened the 2009 season with wins over Liberty Bell (39-8), Entiat (32-23), Manson (40-7), and Bridgeport (34-0) before dropping two straight. Soap Lake stumbled at home against second-ranked La Salle last week, falling 49-2 before dropping Friday night’s game on the road to 10th-ranked Kittitas.

Kittitas’ Paul Oursland ran for 200 yards and two touchdowns while Taylor Morris added 151 yards and four scores to power the Coyotes to the victory.

Morris and Oursland led the Coyotes to a 14-0 first quarter lead with touchdown runs of three yards (Morris) and nine yards (Oursland) before the Eagles offense tried to take flight.

Soap Lake responded to Kittitas’ first-quarter touchdowns with the first score of the second quarter.

With Soap Lake facing a 14-0 deficit, junior quarterback Kyler Moats threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to get the Eagles onto the scoreboard for the first time.

After Soap Lake’s touchdown helped the Eagles pull within a score at 14-6, Kittitas responded with a score from Morris and another from Oursland to take a 28-6 second-quarter lead.

Soap Lake added another score on a one-yard touchdown run from Victor Guzman before another Morris touchdown gave Kittitas a 34-12 halftime lead. Kittitas scored three times — all on the ground — in the third quarter to put Soap Lake and the game away 55-12.

Soap Lake fell to 4-2 in conference play and 4-2 overall with the loss and will host White Swan Friday night. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Almira/Coulee-Hartline 36, Valley Christian 25

COULEE CITY — The fourth-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors recovered from last week’s 64-18 loss to top-ranked Cusick to knock off Valley Christian 36-24 Friday night.

The Warriors scored four first-quarter touchdowns for a 30-0 lead and led 30-8 at the break to distance themselves from the visiting Valley Christian Panthers.

Dylan Tipps scored three touchdowns Friday night, two in the first quarter, to help pave the way for the Warriors who improved to 5-1 overall with the victory. Quarterback Derek Isaak returned a punt 65 yards for a score and ran for 75 yards and another to vault Almira/Coulee-Hartline to the commanding first-quarter lead.

Tipps scored on a 17-yard run in the third quarter to cap the scoring for the Warriors, who held on despite 16 fourth-quarter points from the Panthers.

Odessa 40, Sprague-Harrington 6

ODESSA — Odessa senior Aaron Bruya hauled in a four-yard touchdown pass for the game’s first score to lead the Tigers to a 40-6 win over visiting Sprague-Harrington Friday night.

The Tigers converted the two-point conversion try to follow Bruya’s score and that would be all the Tigers would need.

Sprague-Harrington responded to Odessa’s score with one of their own, but the Falcons failed on their two-point conversion and Odessa led 8-6.

The first-quarter touchdown was the only time the Falcons flew into the end zone Friday night as Odessa scored 32 unanswered points to earn the Northeast 1B Conference victory.