Scotties stop the Cardinals cold on emotional night
Members of the Medical Lake Cardinals and Freeman Scotties stand together in a show of unified support following the Sept. 13 shooting at Freeman that left one student dead and three injured.
Combine having to play one of the Northeast A League's top teams along with the emotion that the Freeman Scotties brought to the field last Friday night and an already uphill battle quickly became a climb up Mt. Everest.
Freeman (1-0 NEA, 2-1 overall) bottled up the energy from students and fans who packed their field following the Sept. 13 shooting on campus, which resulted in the death of one student and the wounding of three more, and rolled to a 49-0 NEA football win over Medical Lake (0-1, 0-3).
"I think Freeman had a ton of emotions," Medical Lake head coach Mo Owen wrote in an email. " The kid next to me was crying during the national anthem. "
How all the distractions played into things, Owen did not want to speculate, but one thing was for sure. Medical Lake continued to struggle on both sides of the ball, earning just three yards of total offense once sacks and losses by its backs were calculated.
"They are as good as it gets in the front seven," Owen said of the Scotties.
Passing was just a tad better as JJ Johnson was 1 for 7 for 21 yards and an interception.
Five different Scotties scored, starting with Dylan Pavilschak's 6-yard pass from Desmond Parisotto just 1 minute, 54 seconds into the contest..
"Their first drive I could tell they had a little extra hitch in their step," Owen said. "But it settled down after that."
Pavilschak led the ground game with 93 of Freeman's 193 rushing yards.
Next up for Medical Lake is a visit Friday from Newport (1-0, 2-0) at 7 p.m. following a 25-0 win over Chewelah. The evening will see the Medical Lake Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2017 introduced at halftime at Holliday Field.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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