Any hope Columbia River had that the steady drizzle would slow down Lindbergh’s high-powered offense soon faded as the Eagles won 48-28 Friday night in a preliminary state tournament game.
“We love the rain,” said Lindbergh coach Dominic Yarrington. “We practice in it and we’re used to it. It rains in November in Washington.”
Despite their experience in the weather, both teams appeared to struggle with the wet and slippery conditions early as the first four possessions all ended in turnovers.
Lindbergh broke the scoring silence when quarterback Jacob Allie took the snap, faked to running back David Valentine and hit Frank Cange on a flag route for a 46-yard score.
The teams traded blows and went into the half with Lindbergh up 20-7. The star of the first half was the Eagles’ tenacious defense. The group forced two fumbles (recovered one), collected two sacks and intercepted two passes in the half.
The Eagles stretched their lead with the passing game late in the third quarter. First, Allie and Cange connected for a 62-yard touchdown pass, but the play was called back because of illegal procedure. On the next play, Allie connected with Diondre Toms for a 67-yard touchdown. Allie’s next two pass attempts went for 88 yards and two touchdowns (both to Willie Creear). The Eagles put up 21 points in less than three minutes of game time.
Columbia River had a late surge in the fourth quarter when Chieftain quarterback Mike Ortegon passed for a 35-yard score with seven minutes left in the game. Columbia River then converted an on-side kick. Ortegon tossed a 23-yard touchdown less than a minute later to pull his team within 13 points, to 41-28.
The Lindbergh offense then went three and out and had to punt back to the Chieftains as the Columbia River crowd started to feel life again and stood cheering. But it was the Eagle defense that stood up to seal the win, causing Columbia River to turn the ball over on downs. Creear scored on a 10-yard rush two plays later to give Lindbergh more of a cushion.
“We let up for about a three-minute stretch,” Yarrington said. “You don’t want to see that, but it happened. Then we scored and kind of got things going again.”
Allie completed 15 of 26 pass attempts for 367 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions. Allie showed an incredible amount of trust in his receivers as he would often throw the ball up where his players had chances to make plays.
“He has 100 percent faith in those guys,” Yarrington said of Allie. “We talk about that all of the time. Just put the rock up and let your guys make plays downfield.”
Toms caught six passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Cange caught three passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns. Creear caught three passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for a touchdown. Valentine 19 times for 112 yards and one touchdown on the night and looked on the verge of breaking a number of runs for longer distances.
Lindbergh (8-2 overall, 7-1 Seamount) will face Bellevue (10-0, 6-0 KingCo 3A) in the round of 16 teams in the state playoffs. The Wolverines beat Sedro-Woolley 48-10 in the preliminary round on Saturday and won the KingCo 3A this season. The Eagles and Wolverines play at Bellevue on Friday at 7 p.m.
Replay-worthy plays from Friday night:
– Allie tossed a long pass up to Toms who was running a deep post route in the second quarter. Toms and a Chieftain defender both caught the ball, but Toms wrestled it away as the two fell to the ground. The play netted 38 yards and Lindbergh scored on the next play.
– Late in the third quarter, one of Allie’s passes bounced off of Cange’s hand, a defender’s helmet and into the outstretched hand of Creear along the right sideline. Creear gathered the ball, turned around and sprinted to the end zone, completing the 80-yard touchdown pass and catch.
– Creear made another acrobatic play just a couple of minutes later in the quarter when he collected a pass from Allie and hurdled two Columbia River defenders to fly into the corner of the end zone for an eight-yard score.
