Cardinals fall at Orofino in weather-shortened game

Friday's season opening nonleague football game in Orofino left Medical Lake head coach Wes Hobbs wishing for more.

Playing 28 minutes of a 48 minute game where he found his team close to putting it all together on a number of occasions, Hobbs, his Cardinals and the home standing Maniacs had to defer to Mother Nature.

A rainstorm, much-needed to douse area wildfires, but accompanied by copious lightning strikes, rolled into the Clearwater River Valley just after halftime, forcing the cancellation of the rest of the game with Orofino leading 19-7.

"I've played in plenty of storms and whatnot but I have not been in the middle of that," Hobbs said. "When that rain came in we were bailing water out of everything we owned."

Orofino (2-0) built a 12-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of touchdown passes from Matt West, a 10-yarder to Bayley Noah and Gabe Turner's 5-yard catch. West finished 4 of 8 for 77 yards.

Medical Lake's Phillip Murray scored on a 5-yard run with 2 minutes, 48 seconds into the second quarter with Cory Wagner adding the point-after to cut it to 12-7.

On Orofino's ensuing possession, Tyler Schwartz rambled 43 yards with 7:36 remaining in the half to put his team up 19-7. Then the gorgeous night for football got ugly, and in a hurry.

"The rain came first and it came down like there was no tomorrow," Hobbs said. Then the lightning came, first occasionally and then nearly constantly.

The frequency of the strikes increased to every 10 minutes, then it was eight minutes, then it was five minutes, Hobbs said. "It was just dancing everywhere."

According to the rules, at the first visible strike, the field must be cleared and players cannot return until 30 minutes after the last strike.

"I don't know if we ever would have gotten out on the field," Hobbs said. And faced with a three-hour bus ride home, the game was officially cancelled with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Hobbs called the time his team did spend on the field, "Informative and a good experience for our kids." Of the time they played, Medical Lake held a five-minute edge in time of possession.

Murray collected 41 yards on 10 carries and Dawson Lack added another 40 in five touches as Medical Lake ran for 134 net yards. Wagner was 5 of 13 for 35 yards and an interception.

Coaches and players reviewed film Monday and the verdict was, "We are better off than we thought we were," Hobbs said.

Hobbs regretted missing a couple of scoring opportunities. "We had a couple of plays we rehearsed ahead of time we felt we could take advantage of and we just didn't execute it," he said.

The most important takeaway so far was Medical Lake got to have more than 20 snaps in a jamboree, Hobbs said. That was a reference to the Cardinals' appearance in an eight-team preseason jamboree Aug. 28 in Ritzville that gave them their first opportunity to get hits in on an opponent.

"It was huge for us, we needed that, "Hobbs said. "We look at it as a very positive experience."

One of the big question marks heading into the season was how an inexperienced line, both offensive and defensive, would play. "We felt that they played pretty darn good," Hobbs said.

Next up for Medical Lake (0-1) is another Idaho team, St. Maries, which visits Holliday Field this Friday, Sept. 11 for a 7 p.m. kickoff in the home opener.

"As usual they're tougher than a boiled owl," Hobbs said. "We definitely have our work cut out for us."

The Lumberjacks are 2-0 following wins 38-7 in the Kibbie Dome versus Kellogg, and 40-0 at home versus Medical Lake's fellow Northeast A League foe, Riverside.

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

pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.