Moses Lake must overcome departures, injuries to return to state tournament

MOSES LAKE - A season ago, Moses Lake head football coach Todd Griffith urged his team to seize opportunities.

The Chiefs missed on a chance to take control of the Columbia Basin Big 9 on a last second 13-10 loss to Wenatchee at home Oct. 25. A 23-17 loss to Davis on the road the next week forced Moses Lake into a "win or go home" game against Eastmont to close the regular season.

The Chiefs finally took their coach's words to heart and punched a ticket to the state playoffs with a 42-34 win against the Wildcats in the season finale.

Moses Lake was eliminated from playoff contention after a 52-13 first round loss to eventual champion Chiawana.

Now, with state tournament experience, Moses Lake isn't happy with just being invited to the table - they want to stay for a course or two.

"The kids that are here now, it left kind of a bad taste in their mouth," Griffith said. "I kind of think we lost the game before we even went out and played ... I think the kids just thought it was a pretty tough foe when we watched them on film and they're pretty good ... It gave my guys a taste and they know that they want it.

"They had a good offseason. We've had rough up and downs right now and if we can settle down and just play like I think we can I think we're pretty frickin' good ... I think we're really good."

Like several teams across the Basin, Moses Lake will have to deal with a shake up in its conference. The Big 9 added West Valley (Yakima), a team that finished 8-2 overall in the CWAC last season.

Eisenhower's Chris Sawyer transferred to the Rams, which should make their transition to the 4A level slightly smoother.

Sawyer led the Big 9 in passing a season ago with 2,475 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Moses Lake won't see their new opponent until the last game of the season, so - for right now - West Valley is out of sight, out of mind for Griffith.

"We play them week 10 and I'm not going to worry about them one ounce," he said. "I know they've got a transfer kid from Ike - a quarterback - who's really good (Chris Sawyer) ... I think that's going to make them pretty good, but again, being pretty good in the CWAC and being pretty good in the Big 9 is a different story."

Despite not being enamored with the Rams to start the year, Griffith is thankful for their addition to the league as it adjusts the schedule so each team only plays its league opponents once.

Something Griffith is a fan of.

"It's not that it hurt us or helped us any which way or the other, but I know that it seemed like if we beat a team and came back and played them the second time it was definitely a harder run the second go ... It's tough to beat somebody twice ... I'm glad we're not doing it," he said. "I like to play each other and make the game count - the one game."

At the skill positions, Moses Lake will have to account for several departures.

Running backs Brett Moser and Jordan Lacelle have both graduated. In 2013, Moser ran for 329 yards and totalled 357 receiving yards - combining for nine touchdowns.

Lacelle ran for 503 yards and saw the majority of the goal line carries.

Griffith will turn to senior Nathan Ball, who led the team in rushing last season with 506 yards despite splitting carries with Moser and Lacelle.

"If he stays healthy I think he's going to lead the league," he said. "We're going to run his frickin' legs off. He's good and makes great cuts, makes good decisions, he's smart. If he stays healthy he should be leading the league."

Moses Lake will also have to deal with a depleted wide receiving core. Along with Moser, leading receiver Nick Sutherland graduated and senior Tyson Karstetter was lost until at least mid season with a broken leg.

Sutherland and Karstetter caught six touchdowns each last year.

Currently, a few receivers have vied for starting snaps.

"(Sean) Zahller's been stepping up, Isaiah Thomas, Ricardo Gonzalez ... Those kids right now I think are probably leading the pack in who's going to be out there," Griffith said. "Got a transfer kid in Henry Russaw ... He's looking pretty good and he could possibly be in the mix.

"He's really trying hard and trying to get it figured out. We're going to go in with four receivers and if we have to we'll be in double tight. We've got three or four good tight ends."

Starting quarterback Easton Castro returns for his senior season after throwing 20 touchdowns to only three interceptions a year ago - the least by a Big 9 quarterback with more than 100 attempts.

Castro has had to adjust to a different offense this season and should continue to be utilized as a runner until he becomes more in sync with his receivers.

"We changed our offense a little bit so they're making the adjustment and that's not too hard for him," Griffith said. "We've ran everything already before, but it's just we're more focusing on some other stuff ... He's doing really good making that adjustment."

Moses Lake starts the season at home against Southridge.

A great opportunity to build toward another state tournament berth.

"We show spurts of being awesome," Griffith said. "It's the ups and downs right now of two-a-days. We've probably the hardest start, I mean physically hard on kids, than we've ever had since I've been around ... When we're going and they're focused we're pretty good."