Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
NWC gets victory over Davenport
Davenport senior Brenick Soliday is brought down by Northwest Christian junior Emmett McLaughlin in the Gorillas' 20-14 loss to NWC Friday, Oct. 21.
DAVENPORT-On the first cold game night this season, the Gorillas looked more chilled than its opponent. The Northwest Christian Crusaders came to town and knocked off Davenport 20-14 to spoil hopes of a Homecoming triumph and end the Gorillas' chances of competing for a state playoff berth.
The loss dropped Davenport to 3-3 in league and 4-3 overall with one regular season game remaining. Northwest Christian picked up just its second win of the season, improving to 2-5 overall and 2-4 in league.
"They had a week of film on us and we had a week of film on them," Davenport coach Tim Rasmussen said. "We really felt like we had an advantage up front this week and they did a good job stacking the box and stopping the run."
The first quarter was nearly a scoreless affair, with both offenses struggling to move the ball for much more than one or two first downs a drive. The Crusaders flipped the script when Titus Spuler returned a punt 35 yards to the Davenport 20.
Quarterback Mike Bauman cashed in the excellent field position with a nine-yard touchdown run to give Northwest Christian a 7-0 lead.
It didn't take the Gorillas long to even the count. Evan Gunning secured a clutch 19-yard catch down the seam on a laser from Jaeger Jacobsen on fourth down in Crusader territory, then ran in a five-yard score to tie the game.
Northwest Christian found itself back on top, however, after Bauman ran in a score from one yard out with 1:38 left in the half. The Crusaders led 14-7 at halftime as Davenport crowned its homecoming king and queen.
Disaster struck for the Gorillas after Davenport held Northwest Christian scoreless on the first drive of the second half. Preston Fazio picked off a deep Jacobsen pass at the Davenport 30 and ran it down the right sideline to the house.
After a failed conversion attempt, the Crusaders had Davenport in a 20-7 hole. That gap closed with Jacobsen ran in from two yards away to make it 20-14 as the third quarter ended, but the Gorillas couldn't find paydirt again for the rest of the game.
"We really shot ourselves in the foot on some big penalties," Rasmussen said. "Every time we would get going we would do something and put ourselves in a hole. It's hard to sustain drives when you're always playing behind the chains."
The loss eliminated any chance Davenport has of finishing in the NE2B's top three, which will be Lind-Ritzville/Sprague, Chewelah and Liberty. Therefore, the Gorillas won't qualify for a top-three crossover with District 6 in Week 10.
Those games will determine the two district's state playoff participants.
Davenport's best hope is to play spoiler against a potential three-way first-place tie in the league that could create some crossover chaos, taking on Chewelah Friday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. to close out the regular season.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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