Friday Night (High)Lights: Greater Spokane League playoff berths settled; participants await WIAA seeding committee announcement
The Greater Spokane League regular season is in the books. A total of 10 teams have qualified for the postseason while the other seven are relegated to a Week 10 nonleague game – one more chance for coaches to work with their players before a long offseason.
We’ve known for a couple of weeks which teams from 4A and 3A would advance, but now we also know how they stack up. The top seeds in each of the three classifications should receive home games when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association seeding committees release the Round of 32 brackets on Sunday. The rest likely will have to travel for the opening round of state playoffs.
A quick look at the WIAA RPI shows GSL champion Gonzaga Prep (9-0) at No. 4 in 4A – there are six remaining undefeated 4A teams, so a few are going to be unhappy with their seeds. Mead (6-3) is down at No. 20.
Now, RPI isn’t the only factor the committees evaluate, but why would they bother publishing it on the WIAA website if it wasn’t a factor? Another caveat about RPI – it doesn’t account for out-of-state games, so some schools’ records are incomplete in the rankings.
In 3A, Cheney (8-1) checks in at No. 8, while Mt. Spokane (7-2) is at No. 16. Might the Wildcats get a home game too?
In 2A, West Valley (8-1) is ranked No. 11, so the Eagles should host a game, but East Valley (5-4), Rogers (5-4) and Pullman (4-5) will all have to be road warriors.
As for the Tuesday play-in games, Lewis and Clark (5-4) draws a tough 4A matchup on the road against Kamiakin (7-2), the third-place team in the Mid-Columbia Conference but the 14th-ranked team in the state. In 3A, University (4-5) hosts Walla Walla (3-6) in a battle of the 39th- and 48th-ranked teams by RPI for a Round of 32 bid.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at what happened around the GSL in Week 9.
Meet the new boss
Cheney has climbed to new heights this year, more than tripling their previous single-season high league win total. Thursday’s thrilling 14-9 win over Mt. Spokane felt a little like the changing of the guard. Not that Mt. Spokane has slipped, mind you. A 7-2 record is nothing to sneeze at. But the 3A division has gone through the Wildcats the past few years, and the Blackhawks went into Union Stadium and got the job done.
They followed a similar pattern to many of their wins this season – a swarming defense and some highlight-reel plays on offense. Cheney came into the game with a different player leading each individual offensive category – passing, rushing and receiving – and its defense was No. 1 in fewest yards per game allowed at 166.8.
All of that was on display Thursday as quarterback Connor Collins, running back Christopher Wilson and receiver Mason Stinson all had huge games. As did Andrew Houndonoughbo, who had two interceptions and a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
The Wildcats defense kept them in the game Thursday, but Cheney’s defense presented problems for Wildcats QB Cade Strocsher, who threw three picks.
Cruise control
Gonzaga Prep had little trouble dispatching U-Hi on Thursday, scoring 42 first-half points en route to a 49-7 win, clinching a third straight undefeated league championship. The Titans’ only score came on a fourth quarter kickoff return after the G-Prep backups on offense scored.
The Bullpups were No. 3 in both the state media and coaches polls last week, and No. 4 in the RPI as mentioned above. Last year, G-Prep was given the No. 5 seed to the state playoffs after an undefeated regular season and resounding win in the Round of 32 and were justifiably angry about the seed.
The reason showed when they had to travel to the Seattle area for a quarterfinal win over No. 4 Kennedy Catholic, then had to go back on the road to the Vancouver area for a battle against top-seeded Camas in the semis – a 28-20 loss they led into the fourth quarter.
There are some very good football teams in the 4A ranks this year – Gonzaga Prep among them. The committee has a tough task ahead of them.
The second seed from the league, Mead, bounced back from consecutive losses to Cheney and G-Prep with a resounding win over Shadle Park. Quarterback Landon Thomas came back from a one-week injury to throw two touchdown passes and give the Panthers some momentum heading into their Round of 32 matchup.
2A breakdown
West Valley exerted its dominance in the 2A division, dispatching resurgent East Valley 31-7 in the league title game. That should take nothing away from the Knights bouncing back from a one-win season in-league last year to capture the division’s second seed to the state playoffs.
Rogers came within 40 seconds and a muffed punt snap from shutting out Deer Park in an elimination game Friday night to capture the league’s fourth seed to state.
The GSL benefits this year from an extra berth, and the Pirates were more than happy to take advantage of the situation. They battled injury this season, primarily to their top receiver and leader Alex Peabody, but the lanky receiver has looked strong in back-to-back weeks.