I might have been the only media person in the state Friday night not watching the marathon Seattle Mariners win over the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. It wasn’t for lack of interest.
But duty calls for Friday Night Lights, with a little Western Hockey League action thrown in. It’s a busy time of year (when isn’t) for your friendly neighborhood high school sports reporter.
Which makes it so convenient and reinforces the incredible – if not protracted – decision to build ONE Spokane Stadium downtown right next to the Arena. It was so easy for me to cover the Mt. Spokane-Lewis and Clark 5 p.m. game, then walk across the street for the start of the second period for the Chiefs’ eventual 4-0 win over the Wenatchee Wild. And there was plenty of parking for everyone!
I wasn’t in two places in once, it only felt a little like it.
As for the baseball, I actually saw a few pitches of the 14th inning during the last 30 seconds of the hockey game as I waited to do postgame interviews. You take what you can get in this business.
But this is a football column. So with that, let’s take a closer look at what happened around the Greater Spokane League in Week 6.
Mt. Spokane keeps finding ways to win, outlasting a tough performance by Lewis and Clark 21-18, and at 5-1 the Wildcats have a strong hold on one of the three Greater Spokane League 3A playoff spots with three games to play. They face winless Ferris and two-win Ridgeline before a showdown for the top 3A seed against Cheney in Week 9.
But coach Terry Cloer said after Friday’s win the Cats are “still searching for it, and we’re still trying to find some things offensively that we can do consistently. We’ve got three more weeks here to figure it out.”
Junior QB Cade Strocsher went 3 of 12 in the first half before finding the zone during a fourth quarter drive where he went 4 of 5 – the last a 30-yard TD strike to Andrew Thomas to provide the winning margin. Strocsher finished 11 of 22 for 140 yards and an interception.
The eye-opening performances came from LC QB Sully Sandusky and WR Calvin Killian – both sophomores. Sandusky, who did not start, finished 18 of 40 for 257 yards with three TDs, while Killian made 10 catches for 197 yards, most of which came in the second half.
Gonzaga Prep, Mead and Cheney all won Friday, further solidifying their hold on the top of the league’s standings. In fact, along with Mt. Spokane they are the only four teams in the league with a winning record.
G-Prep routed Shadle Park 63-0 on Thursday, sending the Highlanders to their fifth straight loss and fourth shutout in five games. Mead handled Ridgeline 46-6 and Cheney had little trouble dispatching Central Valley 37-7. That’s a combined score of 146-13.
The big games left: Cheney at Mead on Oct. 17, Mead at G-Prep on Oct.24, and Cheney at Mt. Spokane on Oct. 30.
The GSL 2A division got a whole lot muddier with Friday’s results. West Valley seems to be in the driver’s seat at 3-0, and East Valley is trending up again at 2-1 in the division and with a signature nonleague 32-14 win over previously undefeated 1A Colville on Friday.
After that? Only the last three weeks will tell. Rogers and Deer Park both lost, to Pullman and North Central respectively, so they both stand at 2-2, as does the Greyhounds. With four teams in the division making the postseason, even one-win NC isn’t out of it yet – though road games at Pullman and WV will be tough tests.
The regular season game of the year in the Northeast 2B took place in Newport, where the Grizzlies edged Freeman 41-40 to solidify their hold on first place in the upper tier of NE2B.
Freeman came into the game ranked No. 1 in the state media poll and coaches association poll, while Newport was ranked No. 4 by the coaches and No. 5 by the media. Guess the Grizzlies will be moving up in both this week.
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