Late rally squashed in Chiefs crossover loss

MOSES LAKE - They were a team that entered the 2010 season looking for its own identity.

The Moses Lake Chiefs football team, coming off a 5-5 campaign, entered this season with a young group, led by 13 seniors, and in the early stages of their schedule they took some hard hits en route to an 0-4 start.

But a surge of three wins and one loss got the Chiefs on a winning track and until last week's narrow loss to Richland, another .500 season was at hand.

Last night, the Chiefs played host to Lewis and Clark in their season finale in a Big 9/Greater Spokane League crossover game at Lions Field.

Calling it their own "playoff" game for 2010, the Chiefs battled back from a 14-point deficit before falling 24-17 to wrap up a year that was filled with much promise and possible sneak previews for the future.

"I feel good about the year since I knew it was going to be one of those seasons where we were young and replaced some good kids from last year," Moses Lake head coach Todd Griffith said. "I knew as the season went on we would get better and we did. We improved a ton from the beginning to the end. We definitely played better the last few weeks. We've been in every game since Kamiakin and that's what you want."

Both teams traded field goals in the first quarter - the Chiefs' Elliot Sage connecting on a 27-yarder to tie the game at 3-3 - and seemed to be headed into halftime on that same score, before Lewis and Clark (4-6) came up with a big 17-yard touchdown pass to cap a lengthy drive at the cusp of intermission.

"I think we had an opportunity on that drive to stop it and I've told the kids the last two weeks that we had to stop long drives," Griffith said. "This game we didn't and they made more plays than we did."

Moses Lake fell behind 17-3 early in the third quarter before mounting their final rally of the season.

First, Stephen Cline ran in a 25-yard score and the Chiefs were down 17-10.

Minutes later, quarterback Kyler Moats connected on a 21-yard strike to Jordan Koon and the game was all tied at 17-17.

"I thought we had them, I thought we broke them," Griffith said. "They just had a big drive to get the lead. I thought we were going to keep going right at then, but then they made a stop and they held on."

Lewis and Clark would score with nine minutes left to go in the game to reclaim the lead 24-17 and then begin holding on from there.

The Chiefs (3-7) would try to get a tying drive going but were relegated to the proximity of midfield and could never mount a serious threat the rest of the game.

"I told them it was a playoff game for us and the kids were enthusiastic and excited about it but we just didn't get it done," Griffith said. "We had several kids that really, really stepped up. I don't think we lost our intensity even after some unfortunate things happened. We would come back and play hard."

Cline finished the evening with 84 yards rushing on 13 carries and Koon added 38 yards on five carries.

Koon also caught five passes for 48 yards.

"I really liked the way we ran the ball," Griffith said. "I want to establish the run every game and especially in the second half we drove six, seven, eight, yards a pop. The running game did really well tonight."

Moats, in his first start since week four of the season, ended up going 9-for-21 with 72 yards passing and one interception. He also added 16 yards on the ground.

"Kyler played solid since he hadn't played in four weeks," Griffith said.

Now with his most of his team set for a return in 2011, Griffith is looking forward to seeing their maturation within the program.

"I think the kids that are in our program are winners and will get us to that next level where we want to be" Griffith said. "Our first goal is to win a league championship and after that, anything goes. We want to show the GSL what the (Big 9) can do.

"I'm pleased with the preparation the kids have done and the guys' attitudes and I'm pleased with their enthusiasm on the field."