Mead topples Cheney 41-7

For the second consecutive week the Cheney Blackhawks have faced the top of the Greater Spokane League in a team from Mead — this time the Panthers.

And for the second time in seven days Cheney has lost in a decisive way — this time 41-7 on the road at Union Stadium to Mead on Oct. 21. The Blackhawks lost at home to Mt. Spokane 45-29 on Oct. 14.

Mead used three Colby Price scores a pair of Colby Danielson touchdowns and assembled a 41-0 lead before Cheney’s Jakeb Vallance ruined the shutout in the fourth quarter with his 5-yard run.

“It boiled down to execution and hats off to Mead they executed very well on Friday,” Blackhawks’ head coach Bobby Byrd wrote in an email. “We were in positions to be successful and did not capitalize,” he added.

Price’s 150 yards on the ground and the 113 passing from Danielson were the biggest part of Mead’s 367-yard total offense numbers.

Cheney was held to 182 with Vallance’s normally effective escapes on the ground bottled up as he was held to just 23 yards on 13 carries. Jeremiah Hubbard was Cheney’s leading rusher with 54 yards on seven carries.

The Blackhawks finish their regular season with a Friday, Oct. 28 game at Eisenhower of Yakima. The 7 p.m. kickoff at Zaepfel Stadium features the Columbia Basin Big Nine Cadets who have struggled this season, too, and a 1-5 in league play, 1-7 overall. Ike’s lone win came against their cross-town rivals, winless Davis (0-5, 0-8).

“The positive about football is you do not have time to dwell on things,” Byrd said. “We looked at this film learned from our mistakes and had to move on to The Cadets. All we can do is get back to work.”

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.