Broncos beat Jaguars in OT

RITZVILLE - Tri-Cities Prep's Bailey Rivas scored on a 2-yard run in overtime, but the two-point conversion attempt failed and Lind-Ritzville/Sprague (LRS) escaped with a one point overtime victory a home Friday night.

"We got the win, but we took a step back focus wise from the previous couple of games," coach Greg Whitmore said. "We moved the ball well, but turned it over five times and allowed Prep to stay in it."

The Broncos put the only points on the board in the first quarter of action on a 50-yard pass from Dylan Hartz to Matt Fryberger (kick failed) to go up 6-0. The score held up through intermission as neither team scored in the second 12 minutes of play.

"I told the kids we should've been up 21-0 at the half," Whitmore said. "I didn't think we very hungry ... had committed a couple of turnovers and thought Prep had us right where they wanted us."

LRS opened the second half of action with a fumble on the kick return. But the Broncos settled down and bounced back with a 24-yard TD pass from Hartz to Cort Ruzicka (Connor O'Neil run) to increase their lead to 14-0. The Jaguars failed to score in the third quarter.

But Prep out scored the Broncos 14-0 on a 5-yard Rivas run (Hogan Jones kick) and a 53-yard pass from Evan Whitsett (Jones kick) in the fourth quarter to tie the game and send it into overtime.

A 3-yard run by Ruzicka (Jarrad Morley kick) put the Broncos up 21-14. The Jaguars got a chance to answer back on their possession in the overtime period as did so with a 2-yard Rivas run to get within a point, 21-20.

But rather than tie the game Prep went for the win, but the Broncos defense came up big and stopped the 2-point conversion to give LRS the victory.

"The Prep coach did what I would have done ... go for the win," Whitmore said. "Fortunately for us we had kids in the right place and came up with the stop."

Ruzicka led the Bronco rushing attack with 123 yards on 17 carries. Dustin Kamme finished with 9 carries for 33 yards. Rivas had 27 carries for 117 for the Jaguars.

"Cort is just a sophomore and is running the ball very well for us right now," Whitmore said. "He's a good athlete, but is having some issues with ball security. It's something he's going to have to work on."

Hartz was 16-for-23 for 190 yards passing for LRS. Fryberger had five catches for 78 yards to lead the Broncos receivers.

The nonleague win over the Jaguars improves LRS to 3-0 overall.

The Broncos open league play on the road against Springdale Friday

"Springdale is a much improved team over last year. They have good athletes and a lot of team speed," Whitmore said. "It's a long bus ride for us and I am interested to see how we respond to that mentally after pulling out the overtime win over Prep."