A basic math lesson shows that a high school football game is 48 minutes long.
Perhaps that’s the drill Medical Lake head football coach Jeremy Bahr needs to impart this week — along with the traditional Xs and Os — to help put an end to his team’s losing streak that has now reached 21 games over the past three seasons.
The latest setback, 21-7 at Lakeside last Friday, their Northeast A League opener, was close to a carbon-copy of the team’s loss the previous week, 27-7 at Okanogan in which the Cardinals hung on into the fourth quarter before losing.
This time, a pair of Eagle touchdowns in the final nine minutes were the difference and broke the 7-7 tie. Kasen Hunsacker’s second score with 2 minutes, 12 seconds to play was the breathing room his team needed to win for the first time in three outings this season.
“I think I’ve said it about 30 times, I’m tired of moral victories,” Bahr said. “But again, I couldn’t be prouder of the kids and their effort.”
If those moral victories counted — and they don’t — this one might qualify considering Medical Lake was in this game until the end. That’s something not the case in recent history where the average margin of Lakeside victories has been 48-16.
After Hunsacker broke a scoreless tie with exactly a minute remaining in the first half, sending his team to the locker room with a 7-0 lead, Carter Pivonka’s 55-yard return of a blocked punt evened it with two minutes to play in the third quarter.
Trailing 14-7 after a Micha Holmes’ score, Medical Lake had its chance to tie midway through the fourth quarter.
“We set up a double move late, probably five minutes left in the fourth quarter, get a deep ball into the end zone and Grant Vercoe, I thought he came down with it, and the (Lakeside) kid punched it out just at the last moment,” Bahr said.
Medical Lake could only muster 112 total yards, 44 on the ground in 37 plays — just over a yard a play — and 68 through the air and the arm of quarterback Aiden Lyerla. His 7 for 21 effort included a pair of interceptions.
But those numbers are not all on Lyerla.
“There was the one that was knocked away, we had a receiver stop running on a ball in the end zone,” and those were just for starters, Bahr said.
There were a handful of drops where the ball was in the hands, but the receivers failed to finish. Penalties played their part as Medical Lake got into a number of situations where a major penalty took things from a second-and-10 to second-and-20 or more.
“It’s frustrating, and then we get some momentum and a then a penalty,” Bahr said.
The Cardinals have proven they can play with anyone so far, with each opponent considered as having playoff potential. “We’re right there,” Bahr said. “I’m hoping we put the pieces together this week.”
That opportunity will come Friday when after two weeks on the road, the Cardinals face 2B Dayton-Waitsburg at Holliday Field with a 7 p.m. kickoff in their final nonleague game.
The visitors from the Southeast Washington Athletic Conference are 1-2, opening with a pair of losses, 25-8 to Columbia-Burbank and 34-8 to DeSales. The Bulldogs ran away from White Swan 38-6 on the road last Friday.
Along with having a couple of players return from injury, the Cardinals welcome basketball and baseball player Sam Golehon who turned out late.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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