Othello runs to big lead, beats East Valley
OTHELLO — Othello got back to what it does best, run the football.
Isaac Barragan rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns. Isaiah Perez powered his way to 131 with a score and the Huskies (3-3, 2-1 CWAC North) won a critical Central Washington Athletic Conference North match up against East Valley 24-12 at Husky Stadium.
On a night where Ellensburg (2-2, 2-0) stunned Prosser 26-14 and Ephrata (3-3, 2-1), which owns the tiebreaker, beat Quincy, Othello could ill-afford to lose its final home game of the regular season.
All the scoring happened in the first half, before both teams dug in defensively and neither scored in the second half. Perez broke off a 50-yard run from scrimmage to get the party started, giving the Huskies the early lead.
The Huskies flirted with turning it into a runaway, scoring the first three touchdowns of the night, Barragan got in on the action to make it a 14-0 game midway through the first quarter. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound junior averaged 8 yards per carry with a long of 44, scored again and the Huskies took a three-score lead in the first quarter, before Dakota Poirer found Sahil Randhawa for a 6-yard scoring strike.
The Red Devils closed to 21-12 with another score in the second quarter, but that’s as close as they would get. BJ Garza, who banged home two extra point kicks, converted on a 28-yard field goal for the final score of the night by either side.
Othello out=gained East Valley in total offense 382-168, with all 382 yards coming on the ground. Six-foot, 190-pound sophomore Logan Hollenback attempted three passes, but did not make a completion. With the running game clicking on all cylinders, the Huskies simply pounded the rock. Steven Ochoa added 58 yards to the mix on five carries
Poirer completed 7-of-19 passes for 59 yards and a touchdown for the Devils, but Othello stepped up defensively to hold East Valley to a little over a hundred yards on the ground. BJ Garza and Esteven Ochoa had a sack apiece.
The Huskies go into the biggest game of the season on Friday against Ellensburg with a 2-1 CWAC North record. Only the top two teams from the North and South advance and the Othello loss to Ephrata makes it mandatory they beat Ellensburg on the road to keep chase in the playoff picture. A win, whoever, would put them in the driver’s seat to repeat as CWAC North champions.
Ellensburg used a dual quarterback situation with Brady Helgeson and Ryan Ferguson to upend previously unbeaten Prosser last week in a nonleague contest. That will give the Huskies coaching staff something to work on to devise a scheme this week.
Othello finished up the regular season at Pullman in a nonleague game.
East Valley 6 6 0 0 - 12
Othello 21 3 0 0 - 24
O - Perez 50 run (BJ Garza kick)
O - Isaac Barragan 2 run (Garza kick)
O - Barragan Garza kick)
EV - Sahil Randhawa 6 pass from Dakota Poirer (kick fails)
EV - Randhawa run (kick fails)
O - BJ Garza 28 field goal