Cardinals' coach calls Riverside loss ‘a giant step backwards'

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

On the scoreboard it was a 3-point defeat.

But as far as Medical Lake coach Wes Hobbs is concerned, last Friday's 26-23 Great Northern League football loss to Riverside on Homecoming might as well have been a much bigger margin.

His team just didn't perform well enough as the Cardinals fell to 0-4 in the GNL and 2-5 overall. “Everyone else looks at it as a 3-point loss,” Hobbs said. “Gee, darn and you guys are still doing great. Well, you know what, that's starting to get old,” he added.

“I just think it's a giant step backwards,” Hobbs said. “I don't know how we could have possibly overlooked them, we have no right to overlook anybody.”

By looking at the game stats it would be hard to figure how the Cardinals lost for the fourth straight Friday. Medical Lake held the advantage in both total yards, 394 to 293, plus rushing and passing and won the turnover battle, 4-2.

Individually, Medical Lake spread the ball around on the ground; Brendan Heikkila led the Cards with 78 yards on four carries. Tim Haynes ran 14 times for 74 yards. Jarrod Swanson added 23 yards rushing, plus an interception on defense.

Nick Pacheco hit on 13 of 26 passes for 198 yards, a touchdown and one interception. Ryan Owens topped Cardinal receivers with three catches for 67 yards with Devon Prince right behind with four grabs for 63 yards and a touchdown.

Medical Lake won both the early and late battles. Keyed by Heikkila's 50-yard run that took the ball to the Ram three, Haynes's scored with just 2:19 elapsed in the first quarter.

It took just two plays for the Cards to get the ball back with Rams' quarterback Josh Davis throwing into double coverage and Pacheco emerged with the ball. The 13-play drive ended with a field goal from Chad Linafelter for a 10-0 lead with 1:51 left in the quarter. Linafelter was returning to the line-up for the first time since he was injured at Colville Oct. 2.

Then things went south for Medical Lake as Riverside scored the next 26 points to lead 26-10. That span was baffling for Hobbs who saw his team self-destruct again with silly penalties and plain uninspired play.

“Right from the very beginning we started having penalties,” he said. “We had more than our share in crucial situations.” Missed assignments also kept the Cards off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. Once again Medical Lake came up too little, too late.

As the fourth quarter started, the ball changed hands twice in the first four plays. First, Riverside's Chase Florez intercepted a Pacheco pass on second down. The Rams kept the ball just one more play before Heikkila got his second Ram turnover, a fumble recovery on the Riverside 47 with just four seconds gone in the fourth quarter. Twelve plays later, Pacheco ran around the left side for a touchdown with 7:11 to go closing it to 26-16 after the pass for a 2-point conversion was tipped away.

Medical Lake's swarming defense made two huge plays on the next series, scoring a pair of quarterback sacks, the first a 4-yard to Dewey Bender and then knocking Davis back another five for a fourth and 19 at the Rams' 22.

Following a Riverside punt, the first play from scrimmage included trickery with Owens taking the handoff and then pitching to Heikkila who carried the ball to the Cardinal 45.

After a couple of short gains, Pacheco found Owens for seven yards and a first down on a do-or-die fourth and five at the Ram 49. Then Prince caught a Pacheco pass down the right side and outran the defenders for the Cards' second score in 4:22. Linafelter's kick made it a 26-23 game with 2:49 to go.

Medical Lake's squib kick was recovered by Riverside's Hunter Orgill at the Rams' 44. They would spend the next 2:44 burning clock before punting and giving the Cardinals the ball on their own 30 with just five seconds left. Pacheco had just one shot from 70 yards out and his heave never came anywhere close.

“It's gut-check time now,” Hobbs said. “We've got three tough, tough weeks. We've got to go Deer Park, West Valley and Clarkston and we're going to find out what living's all about.”

Medical Lake next travels to Deer Park (2-2 GNL, 5-2) this Friday at 7 p.m. “They're huge, they are huge,” Hobbs said of the Stags. “They've got two really good backs. They've got a real good quarterback, a real good tailback. They've got the full meal deal.”

Hobbs said Medical Lake was,“going to be real outmatched physically but that's the case every week. We're not in awe of that.”

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.