Soap Lake drops to Entiat, eliminated from playoff contention

SOAP LAKE - Even with all the ups and downs and injuries throughout the season for the Eagles, they found themselves controlling their own destiny on Friday night with a win and your in game against Entiat. In a Northeast 1B South showdown with the entire season at stake the Eagles of Soap Lake just couldn't soar as they did earlier in the season, as they fell to the relentless attack of the Entiat Tigers. A win for Soap Lake would have secured the number three seed in the conference, but a slow start and crucial mistakes but the Tigers in the driver seat early, and ultimately squashed their playoff aspirations ; dead in their tracks. Entiat scored on two pick-sixs' in the first half to set the tone for the game and stifled the Eagles emotional charge that they started the game with.

"It's a shame we had that opportunity right in front of us and simply couldn't do what we needed to do. It's a real downer for our guys who worked so hard all year to get to this point." head coach Joe Worsham said.

The Eagles came out of the gates with everything they needed to defeat an Entiat team that stepped onto the Soap Lake field with an identical record (5-3 overall 2-3 in league). Ben Winters caught a 26 yard pass from quarterback Joe Cutshall for the first score of the game. After an emphatic stop by the Eagle's defense, Cutshall and the offense got the ball back and drove the ball down the field successfully running the option and west-coast offense style pass plays, with their sights set on jumping out to an early lead and not looking back until they were a playoff team; unfortunately they got ahead of themselves and overlooked a competitive Tiger team on Friday night. Cutshall was intercepted in the red zone and Entiat returned the pick 90 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at six.

"The big plays pretty much took us out of the ball game. We made stops on first and second down, but they converted on third down and got big plays." Worsham said.

The Eagles responded with a strong drive capped off by a one yard touchdown run from team captain Dustin Foster and Cutshall added a two point conversion run to put Soap Lake up 14-6 as the first quarter came to a close. The records accurately reflected how evenly matched these two teams were and it played out on the field on Soap Lake on Friday night. Entiat answered Foster's touchdown with a score of their own with a 21 yard touchdown pass to begin the second quarter.

With their lead cut to two points Cutshall again led an emotionally charged drive, being dramatically outspoken in the huddle and on the sidelines throughout the first half. As the Eagles approached the red-zone Cutshall threw another ill-advised ball directly into the hands of a Tiger defender, which would be returned for a 70 yard touchdown. The Eagles began to come unraveled with players in disagreement and pointing fingers, failing to notice they were only down 18-14 with more than 24 minutes left to play. The out of sync Eagles were forced to punt on the ensuing possession and Entiat capitalized, taking the ball all the way down and scoring on a 2 yard run, followed up by their first successful extra point of the night on a two point conversion run. The Eagles would go into the half trailing 26-14, but could see the game and their postseason hopes slipping away.

Soap Lake had a drive going strong early in the third quarter when a controversial fumble was awarded to Entiat and again brought the Eagles from an emotional high to an emotional low in the span of one play. After the teams exchanged unsuccessful drives, the Tigers struck again with a 94 yard touchdown run up the sideline in front of the Entiat bench to make the score 32-14.

"Giving up two long interceptions for touchdowns, plus three long touchdown receptions and a 94 yard touchdown run pretty much tells the story. We moved the ball, played well on defense for two out of three plays and could not come up with the big plays of our own." Worsham said.

The Eagles finally got back on the scoreboard early in the final quarter with a statement drive finished off with a Neo Wells 15 yard touchdown run. Entiat would quickly answer back with another big touchdown pass, this time connecting for a 50 yard passing score and converting the two point conversion to go up 48-20. With minutes remaining and a 28 point deficit, the Eagles playoff dreams faded away and reality of the up and down season began to set in on the sideline. This group of Soap Lake players is tough and they kept fighting even with a win out of reach; scoring two more touchdowns in the final period as Wells ran in another touchdown from two yards out and senior Ben Winters broke a 20 yard run for a score. You can't deny the heart of this years Eagle's team, but the two late touchdowns wouldn't be enough to bring them back and the clock would tick to all zeros with the scoreboard reading 48-34; propelling Entiat forward into the playoffs.

"We need to end the season on a positive note and win out here at the end." Worsham said.

The Eagle's season truly took a turn for the worse when team captain and outspoken leader David Odarchuk went down with an ACL injury. He played two weeks with a torn ACL before shutting it down and succumbing to the brutal injury that would require surgery and not allow David to play sports during his senior year. With 79 tackles before his season was cut short, Odarchuk was the teams leader on both sides of the ball and is still second on the team in tackles and hasn't played in four games and keep in mind the two games before that he was playing on one leg.

"Losing David made us an entirely different team; he was our enforcer on defense and more importantly he cleaned up the mistakes that his teammates made and his presence on offense has been sorely missed." Worsham said.

With Odarchuk out the Eagles had to shuffle the lineup around and put pressure on sophomore quarterback Cutshall to carry the offense and junior Caleb McMillian to carry the defense. After a 3-0 start the Eagles stumbled going just 2-4 over their last 6 games; all of which Odarchuk was hurt or out completely.

"Like I told our guys after the loss on Friday, we are playing for a winning season now. If we pull out a win against Wellpinit in the crossover game next week we will finish 6-4 overall. That would be the first winning season for Soap Lake in over a decade and more importantly would be a big win for the fan-base." said Worsham.