Moses Lake football drops game to Richland Friday
Moses Lake MLHS Chiefs Football
RICHLAND - B.K. Robinson ran for 123 yards and Zack Whitby threw for 204 more, as the Richland Bombers turned back a determined Moses Lake team, 34-26 Friday.
The competition was so fierce between the Chiefs (1-8) and Richland (6-3) Friday, one would never know the two teams were on the opposite end of the spectrum save their win-loss records, as they battled tooth and nail in the last league game of the season.
"I thought the kids played pretty good last night," coach Todd Griffith said. "But we came out slow and needed a little jump start to get going and you can't do that against a good team like Richland."
The Bombers rang up the first 14 points of the game on a 27-yard pass from Whitby to Gibson McGeorge and a 14-yard run by Ellijah Garday. But the Chiefs answered back with a 15-yard pitch and catch from Justin Simmons to Jordan Koon to get within eight. The PAT by Elliot Sage was blocked and the Bombers led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
Richland put seven more points on the board in the second quarter of action on a 12-yard pass from Whitby to Colter Quick and a PAT by Quinton Taychack to go up 21-6. The scrappy Bomber defense held the Chiefs in check and took the 15 point lead to the locker room at the half.
"We weren't ready to go at the first whistle," Griffith said. "We made a couple of mistakes and spotted them 14 points in the first five minutes of the game and that hurt us."
The gut-check half-time speech Griffith delivered to the team must have inspired the Chiefs as Moses Lake outscored the Bombers 14-7 in the third quarter on a 9-yard pass from Simmons to Cameron Ballard and a 13-yard run by Koon. Cameron Simpson hit pay dirt for Richland on a 1-yard run.
Both teams got a TD in the fourth quarter and had PATs blocked to round out the scoring for the game. Koon punched it in from 1-yard out for the Chiefs. Simpson scored on a 24-yard run for Richland.
"We had an outstanding second half. I am proud of the way the kids bounced back," Griffith said. "They played hard and we outscored them 20-13."
Simmons connected on 10-of-26 passes for 163 yards, and Koon caught four balls for 79 yards to lead the way for the Chiefs.
"Jordan did another outstanding job for us as Justin got hurt again and he took over at quarterback," Griffith said. "A couple other guys stepped up big for us too. Cameron Ballard had his best game of the year and Nick Sutherland had some key catches for us."
Moses Lake has one final game left to play, a non-league match up with Eastmont at Lions Field at 6 p.m. Thursday.
"The game has no impact on our league standings," Griffith said. "But it would be nice to get a win in our last home game of the season and give us some momentum to build on for next year."
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