Warriors edge College Place on the gridiron
Bob Kirkpatrick/The Sun Tribune - The Warriors defense stacks seven in the box looking to shutdown the Hawks run game.
MATTAWA — It wasn’t a pretty win, but it was a victory nonetheless as Wahluke was able to come out on the plus side of 30-27 contest with the College Place Hawks who entered the game Friday night on a four-game skid.
“A win is a win and we are happy to get it as poorly as we played,” coach Mike Foristiere said. “Give credit to College Place for how hard they played.”
The Warriors got on the board first on a pass and 2-point conversion from Oscar Rodriquez to Jesus Cisneros to take an 8-0 lead with 4:26 left in the opening quarter.
Wahluke’s defense got into the scoring act in the second quarter when Ryan Smith jarred the ball loose near midfield and Gerado Ledezman took it to the house. The 2-point conversion (Rodriguez to Cisneros) was good and the home team was out to what appeared to be a comfortable 16-0 lead with 11 minutes to go in the first half.
But things began to unravel for the Warriors as two costly coverage mistakes and bad tackling led to 20 unanswered points and the Hawks took a 20-16 lead at the break.
Wahluke regrouped in the locker room and hung 14 points on the board on TD runs by Rock Foristiere and Rodriquez, and two 2-point conversions to go up by 10 heading into the final 12 minutes of the game.
College Place, refusing to yield, hit pay dirt once again to close the gap to 30-27 and put the home team crowd on the edge of its seats.
But the Warriors held on for the win and moved to 3-1 in conference play.
“We really struggled on offense with penalties and turnovers, but did end up with 401 total yards,” Foristiere said. “Our defense played a bit sloppy at times too, but forced four turnovers.”
Wahluke gained 337 yards on the ground and had two running backs finish with over 100 yards each. Rock Foristiere carried the loaf 17 times for 120. Juan Silva finished with 104 yards on 14 carries. The Warriors had just 64 yards through the air on the night.
Wahluke looks to pick up back-to-back wins when the team hits the road to Warden Friday to take on the 2-2 Cougars.