Final drive against Freeman may be defining moment for Cardinals
Taking down Scotties delivers ‘We belong’ message for Medical Lake
Last updated 10/5/2018 at 1:10am
Earthquakes and glaciers tend to be agents of slow-moving change for the planet. Little, by little, over the course of centuries — eons perhaps — they make their mark.
The same might also be said for landmark football victories. Like Medical Lake’s 16-14 win over Freeman last Friday. The victory was only Medical Lake’s fourth in their last 30 games, but the Cardinals’ second straight.
Hopefully it signals some kind of positive trend?
Certainly, one or two games does not mean an abrupt end to a program saddled with struggles since the retirement of John Giannandrea following the 2003 season. Wes Hobbs’ 2012 Cardinals, with their 6-3 mark, is the only above .500 record in the last 15 seasons.
What new head coach Jeremy Bahr has worked to correct has been teaching his players to learn to win. It’s tough to do, perhaps, with a team where in the last decade-and-a-half W’s have come statistically speaking oh so sparingly — once in about every four games.
Friday’s win, however, was not just one for the standings. It was also for that psyche Bahr, a Cardinal practically from birth and a 1999 grad, has also sought to change.
Things may not have been better illustrated that positive steps have been taken than when midway through the fourth quarter, after leading 10-0, suddenly Bahr’s Cards were trailing 14-10. Medical Lake was faced with having to go 77 yards in 5 minutes and change to flip the score. And it was an obvious must they score a touchdown.
“Everything that has led up to this point can all be forgotten if we can march and just punch it in,” was the message Bahr told the troops. “That’s what we did.”
But like the rest of the night, it was certainly not without drama, or pitfalls.
A long kickoff return of some 52 yards was called back on a Cardinal personal foul. Then, a wide-open Grant Vercoe slipped on a third-down conversion attempt leaving Medical Lake with a fourth-and-three on their own 31 with just under five minutes to play.
“I was leaning towards punting and putting it on our defense, just (with) kinda’ the way things went for us in the second half,” Bahr said.
Coach Mike Johnson, who ironically was a member of the last Medical Lake team to beat the Scotties — a 27-3 victory on Oct. 18, 1996 in Freeman — practically guaranteed Bahr that Carter Pivonka could get the job done and get a crucial first down.
Pivonka, who began the game on the kickoff return team — and had a momentary lapse of remembering “Football 101” while failing to cover a bouncing kick, allowing Freeman to recover —delivered on the coaches’ bet with a 25-yard run.
Seven plays later, quarterback Aiden Lyerla followed the pile of blockers into the end zone from the 1-yard line with 49 seconds to play to return his team to the lead, 16-14, missing the extra point.
But what would an already dramatic game be without another dash of drama from Freeman, the program that has been the polar-opposite to Medical Lake in recent history with a state 1A championship in 2013?
On their final drive with 41 seconds on the clock, all Freeman needed was a field goal to win. It didn’t help to have a late-hit out of bounds penalty to get the Scotties to midfield.
But what followed was a tackle for loss and pressure from mighty-mite (all 5-foot, 7-inch, 160-pounds) Brayden Petersen leading to an incompletion. Finally, Pivonka snagged a hastily-flung wounded duck pass for an interception to end the game.
Having let a couple of earlier games slip away in the fourth quarter, for Bahr, perhaps one of the biggest leaps forward is fixing what’s between the ears of the kids as they are now believing they belong and can compete, he said.
“The kids have a little extra pep in their step, and the pride and the support from the community, I’m lovin’ it,” Bahr said. “Someday I’ll be able to sit back and appreciate it.”
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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