Quincy's offense improves in road loss to East Valley

YAKIMA - Following a tough loss last weekend to Othello, the

Quincy Jacks football team got off the deck and engaged hosts East

Valley in a shootout before falling 40-30 on Friday night.

YAKIMA - Following a tough loss last weekend to Othello, the Quincy Jacks football team got off the deck and engaged hosts East Valley in a shootout before falling 40-30 on Friday night.

Quincy was done in by the play of Cody Nickoloff who ran for a school record 302 yards for East Valley along with four touchdowns in the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) encounter.

"Defensively we struggled to contain Nickoloff, who was able to score on several long touchdown runs," Quincy head coach Stephen Wallace said. "He broke several third-and-long tackles in the backfield to get first downs. Also special teams gave up a punt return for a touchdown right before half and fumbled on a kick return in the third quarter."

Nickoloff scored on runs of 70, one, 63, and 33 yards in succession for East Valley (1-2, 1-1).

Quincy (1-2, 0-2) led 6-0 when Kevin Rincon scored on a 15-yard touchdown run but the point-after conversion failed.

East Valley would score 19 unanswered points before a Jackson Hodges run for Quincy cut the Jacks' deficit to 19-12.

But a Jake Valenzuela punt return of 75-yards went for a touchdown and East Valley was up 26-12 going into the intermission.

Hodges would score again on another one-yard run to pull his squad back to 34-18 before Nickoloff's final score cemented the hosts' win.

Wrapping up the game scoring came via two touchdown passes from Hodges, first on a 40-yard strike to Kody Berens and then a 24-yard connection to Cody Beaumont.

Hodges ended his night with 17 carries for 73 yards while passing-wise he finished 5-for-11 with 110 yards in the air.

Rincon led Quincy in rushing with 131 yards on nine carries while Cai Yamamoto added 30 yards on seven carries.

Beaumont led the Jacks with two catches and 55 yards.

Quincy failed to convert on a single point-after attempt during the game.

"This week we focused on getting our team back to pounding the football on the ground," Wallace said. "We made several personnel and alignment changes on the offensive line. I believe our offensive changes worked out well for our offense. We got better pass protection and were able to sustain long drives with the running game.

"We were unable to convert PAT's and we went for two after every touchdown and did not convert any," Wallace added. "That ended up hurting us in the end. Overall, I was pleased with our player's ability to continually fight back from adversity."