Moses Lake football turns back Davis Pirates

MOSES LAKE - Quarterback Justin Simmons ran for 176 yards, passed for 148 and accounted four touchdowns to lead the Chiefs to a 40-22 victory over Davis Saturday night at Lions Field.

The game was originally scheduled for Friday in Yakima, but was moved to Moses Lake due to poor air quality.

"It was another exciting game for us," coach Todd Griffith said. "I'm sure the kids are glad we won, but probably feel we could've play a lot better. We had some penalties and shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, but played through it all and found a way to pull out the win."

The Pirates won the coin toss and elected to defer possession to the second half.

That decision proved unwise as the Chiefs Colton Kelly returned the opening kickoff 87 yards (Sage PAT) to give Moses Lake a 7-0 lead 12 seconds into the game.

Davis moved the ball to the Chiefs 25 on the Pirates first possession of the game, but back to back penalties forced the Pirates to punt the ball back to Moses Lake. The Chiefs took over on their 20 on a short return by Trino Rubio. A key fourth and two conversion by Simmons and a pass interference call on the Pirates put the ball on the Davis 1-yardline. Rubio punched it in (Sage PAT) on the next play to put the Chiefs up 14-0 with five minute left in the opening quarter.

The Pirates started their second possession on the Davis 23 and moved the ball to the Moses Lake 42 as the first quarter expired.

Ben Crowell intercepted a Pirate pass at the Chiefs 18 a minute into second quarter of action to stop the Davis drive. Moses Lake drove 82 yards in three minutes to put its third score on the board on a TD pass from Simmons to Brett Moser (Kick failed) to push the Chiefs lead to 20-0.

Davis returned the ensuing kick off to the Pirate 35, and marched 65 yards in a little over two minutes for their first score of the game (PAT) to close the gap to 20-7.

The Chiefs started their next drive on the Moses Lake 20. A reverse by Moser moved the ball to the Davis 42. Cameron Law raced around the left side of the line on the next play and appeared to be heading for a score, but was tackled on the Davis 4-yardline. One play later, Simmons hit Law in the end zone (Sage PAT) to put the Chiefs back up by 20 with four minutes left in the half.

The Pirates took over on their 35 and moved the ball to the Moses Lake 18 with 35 seconds left on the clock. On first and goal from the Chiefs one, the Cadets quarterback threw an ill-advised pass that was picked off by Colton and returned 103 yards for an apparent score. But a block in the back penalty on the run back nullified the touchdown with five seconds left in the first half of play.

A knee down by Simmons on the next play sent the teams into the locker room with the Chiefs up 27-7.

"We felt pretty good going into halftime with a big lead," Griffith said. "But we came out in the second half and gave up a TD on their first drive. We've done that for the last three games and have to find a way to correct it."

The Pirates took the second half kick and drove the length of the field and scored on a 14-yard TD run to get within 13 points with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

A hard short kick by the Pirates gave the Chiefs excellent field position at the Moses Lake 45. A keeper by Simmons moved the ball to the Davis 18. One play late, Simmons connected up with Moser for his second score of the game (PAT failed) to put the Chiefs up 33-14. The score held up through the end of the quarter.

A touchdown and 2-point conversion by the Pirates with a little less than 10 minutes to go in the game made it 33-22 in favor of Moses Lake.

Cameron Law returned the Pirate kickoff to the Davis 40, but a holding call on the Chiefs put the ball back on the Moses Lake 18.

The Chiefs had trouble gaining any yards and had to put for the first time in the game.

Moses Lake's Easton Baker booted the ball to the Pirate 42. Davis picked up one first down, but turned the ball over to Moses Lake on downs at the Chiefs 49. A 37-yard pitch and catch from Simmons to Rubio and a Simmons scramble pushed the ball to the Pirate 1-yardline. Two plays later Simmons found the end zone (PAT) to give the Chiefs some much needed breathing room, 40-22.

A big defensive stand by Moses Lake forced the Pirates to punt with a minute and 16 seconds left in the game. The Chiefs were able to run out the clock to preserve the win.

"I thought our defense played well tonight. We're young (only one senior), but get a lot of leadership from our linebackers who've been playing solid against the run all season," Griffith said. "Our offensive line is starting to get in a groove and has also been playing very well."

The victory over Davis improves the Chiefs 3-0 in league play and lands the team in first place in the CBBN.

"We are right where we want to be," Griffith said. "But we need the kids to understand everyone will be gunning for us every time we take the field now. Hopefully, that will keep us on our toes."

Moses Lake is back in action Friday when the Chiefs host Eastmont at 7 p.m. at Lions Field.

"Eastmont is going to be tough," Griffith said. "They looked great against Wenatchee ... they have a great QB ... a solid ruining game and their receivers as a whole are better than what we've seen so far. This game will be a good test for our DB's."