Ephrata secures CWAC North No. 2 seed, Othello eliminated  

ROYAL CITY — Ephrata senior Trenton Kleyn didn’t have to run through his pre-read progression very long once he saw running back Tony O’Neel lined up wide on a linebacker in the coverage.

Kleyn found O’Neel on a perfect seam route for a 37-yard scoring strike to lead Ephrata to a 9-0 victory over Othello in the first of two Central Washington Athletic Conference tie-break games at David Nielsen Stadium Tuesday night in Royal City.

Ellensburg captured the CWAC North No. 1 seed with a 7-0 victory over Othello (4-5, 3-2 CWAC North) in the night’s second game and will face the South’s top seed Prosser (6-2, 4-0 CWAC South) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lions Field in Moses Lake. Ephrata (5-4, 4-1) will go in as the No. 2 seed from the North and face Toppenish (5-3, 4-1) in the 4 p.m. game.

“On offense, we liked some matchups we had and we wanted to take advantage of them. We got Tony matched up on a linebacker and you saw what end result was,” Ephrata coach Jay Mills said.

The way it worked, Ephrata and Othello played the first game, under the modified Kansas tiebreaker system, which gave each team two possessions, starting at the 25-yard line. The loser would play Ellensburg in Game 2. As it turned out, Ephrata played just the one game and needed Othello to beat Ellensburg to go into the weekend’s 2A CWAC as the top seed from the North. Since Ellensburg had beaten Ephrata during the regular season, the Bulldogs claimed the North title.

“We had been in these before as a staff and had a couple of kids that have been there early in their careers,” Mills said. “We’re a veteran team and at this point, it’s all mental. The big thing is to be ready to go when you step on the field because the game can end very quickly.”

Ephrata came out with four consecutive passes and eventually scored on a 37-yard field goal by Josh Benthem to take the lead on its first possession. Othello running back Isaac Barragan broke outside for a 9-yard gain on the first play of the Huskies possession, but fumbled on the play and the Tigers ended the first quarter by coming up with the ball.

Next possession, Kleyn found O’Neel for the touchdown and that was it.

“I had no doubt in my mind we were ready to come in here and play tonight,” said Othello junior Isaiah Perez, who is a highly touted NCAA Division I recruit. “We just didn’t execute.”

For the Tigers, they prepared to let it fly from the get-go and sent receivers deep at the end zone on all four plays. Kleyn nearly missed on a go route to Benthem down the far sideline. He did not on the O’Neel seamer right up the middle.

“We think our team speed was a little better than theirs. We wanted to take our shots when we could,” Kleyn said. “I didn’t have any pressure. I enjoy being the guy and I trust my teammates.

“On the touchdown, I saw the safety go over to Josh and it left Tony wide open. I knew I couldn’t rush, I gave it some air and it worked.”

As the scenario played out, the Huskies needed to beat a team they had previously beaten on a Bernie Garza Jr. field goal last week. But Ellensburg exploited the Othello defense on the first play when quarterback Brady Helgeson dropped back, waited for the linebackers to clear, then broke off a 25-yard run through the Huskies for the opening score.

Othello went all-out to block the point-after kick and roughed Ellensburg place kicker Elijah Harper. The penalty resulted in a penalty assessed on the Othello possession, giving them first-and-20 on the 50.

On the Huskies second possession, they hoped to capitalize on a specialty play, but Barragan’s pass on the halfback option was intercepted by Riley Seed to seal the Bulldogs’ victory and give them the No. 1 seed.

The CWAC football championships on Saturday will determine the top seed from the CWAC and crossover games next week.