Ephrata falls to Othello in CWAC showdown

OTHELLO - Both teams came into the contest with just one loss and their sights set on a postseason run, but only one team would come out of the game confident in their chances to get into playoffs later this fall.

After a back and forth contest, full of questionable calls and emotionally charged plays, the Huskies finally pulled away late in the second half and went on to win the game 24-3.

"When your in an evenly matched game , it's going to be the team that makes the least amount of mistakes that wins and looking back at Friday night we just made a few more mistakes, and it cost us." Ephrata head coach Jay Mills said.

It was Othello's 14 year old freshman quarterback Adrian Garza that proved to make all the difference in the CWAC showdown Friday, as he threw for 121 yards and two touchdowns while making plays with his feet to get out of trouble and complete key passes down the stretch. After a scoreless first period of play, Garza opened things up in the second quarter, rolling to his left on a bootleg and eluding two would be tacklers to complete a 27 yard pass to a wide open Randy Gomez for the first points of the game.

The Tiger's defense played well and had the Huskies in long yardage situations throughout the night, but were unable to capitalize, and it was Othello who turned those long yardage situations into big plays for their offense.

"I think our guys got the backed up and made good plays, but then let them out of the hole and it effected the emotions of some of the guys and gave Othello some confidence and momentum on those big plays." Mills said.

Penalties played a factor in the game as both teams made costly errors and stifled progress for their offenses. In the second quarter Garza ran a keeper up the sideline for a play that would have resulted in first and goal, but holding brought the play back. With six minutes to go in the second quarter, Othello had a touchdown run called back for holding and had to settle for a field goal. In the third quarter with just over a minute to play, Othello had a long run play that was brought back on a holding call and then just two plays later a block in the back brought the Huskies back even further.

While the Huskies would go on to score later in the drive, it was plays like this throughout the night on both sides that slowed the momentum and prevented the contest from being an offensive showcase.

"Penalties hurt out offense, getting us into 1st and 20 and 2nd and 25 situations too often and that derailed some of our better offensive drives. I think the game was called down the middle, but flags hurt both teams Friday." Mills said.

The Huskies were finally able to overcome mental errors and field position woes to score 18 points in the second half and pull away from Ephrata. Tanner Wagner was relentless, rushing the ball for the Huskies, carrying 22 times for 92 yards, and in all the Huskies rushed for 215 yards and a touchdown. Garza threw his second touchdown with just minutes left to play to ice the game for Othello and improve their record to 4-1 on the season and 3-1 in conference.

The Tigers' only points came late in the third quarter when Dalton Johnson hit a 26 yard field goal to make the score 9-3 and gave life to the Tigers. The offensive surge was short lived as the Huskies responded with a big fourth quarter and scored 15 unanswered points en route to a 24-3 victory. While the scoreboard didn't reflect how closely matched the two teams were, Othello showed their resilience and ability to keep their composure in a hard fought win.

"They have a really good defense, especially against the run, and they showed that Friday. We wanted to come out and establish the run and we just never were able to really do that the way we wanted to." Mills said.

With the loss, Ephrata moves to 3-2 on the season and now turns their attention to their tilt with Selah at home next Friday. The Huskies improved to 4-1 on the season and will have perhaps their most difficult test of the season this coming Friday against Ellensburg.

Both teams postseason hopes are still alive, but it will take a strong second half of the season for either squad to make a run at the state title. More importantly both teams will have to play smarter football, with less penalties to ensure they don't beat themselves if they hope to have success late in the year.