Othello comes up empty in CWAC championship game with Selah

GRANDVIEW — Sometimes the GPS leads you down some lonesome road to a vacant lot and, then has the audacity to say, “you have arrived at your destination.”

Even with the wonders of modern technology, whatever coordinates the Othello Huskies (5-4) punched in came up empty in Saturday night’s 52-0 loss to unbeaten Selah (8-0) in the Central Washington Athletic Conference championship game at Rich Leenhouts Stadium in Grandview.

They looked lost. The little electronic voice didn’t even bother to say, “recalculating,” it just dumped them off in the middle of nowhere with a long bus ride home. It was all Selah, all night long and the Vikings beat the Huskies for the eighth time in the past nine years.

“We had a pretty big head coming into the playoffs,” said running back Isaac Barragan, who finished with 55 yards on nine carries. “It was hard. A lot of guys hung their head there when we got down. We just have to get back to doing what we’ve been doing all season and we’ll be alright.”

The Vikings, who went into the contest averaging 46.3 points a game, scored on their first three possessions. When the Huskies did finally get the defensive stop, the Vikings’ punter pinned them deep on the 2-yard line with a perfect coffin-corner. The smothering Selah defense then chased down Othello quarterback Kyler Villarreal from the backside in the end zone for a safety.

If that wasn’t enough, Jake Weber’s 72-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to cap a 24-point second quarter was. It was 38-0 at the half and Andres Garcia’s 39-yard touchdown run made it a running clock (40-point lead) with 4:40 left in the third quarter.

“We didn’t play well tonight, but we played hard and played with pride,” Othello sophomore Gustavo Vasquez said. “There’s not a lot of guys on this team without playoff experience, so we’re learning together.”

Barragan was the Huskies’ leading rusher with 55 yards. Villarreal had some nice runs trying to give Othello another presence in the backfield, but it was tough sledding for the 6-foot-4 senior who took over at quarterback three games into the season. Villarreal finished with 34 yards. Fullback Isaiah Perez pounded his way to 32 yards on 10 carries.

Villarreal threw just 12 times as the Huskies tried to establish the ground game, for 57 yards. Perez caught three balls for 36 yards.

Selah quarterback Zak Donato ended his night 13-of-21 for 174 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 93 yards rushing.

The Huskies have a bye this week, but will be back on the gridiron Nov. 11. Their opponent is yet to be determined, but it looks like it will at Steilacoom if the Sentinels beat the Washington Patriots on Friday.

Othello 0 0 0 0 — 0

Selah 14 24 7 7 — 52

Scoring summary

S — Cameron Ditter 18 pass from

Zak Donato (Tristan McDevitt kick)

S — Jake Weber 30 pass from

Donato (McDevitt kick)

S — Donato run (Ditter pass from

Donato)

S — Safety

S — Weber 72 kickoff return

(McDevitt kick)

S — Donato 11 run (McDevitt kick)

S — Andres Garcia 39 run

(McDevitt kick)

S — Caden Harris 10 run (McDevitt

kick)