COLVILLE - The ingredients to a 5-0 start for the Colville Crimson Hawks have been evident in nearly every game this season - balanced offense, suffocating defense.
On Friday night, the kicking game continued to emerge.
While the offense rolled up touchdowns on its first seven drives and the defense held Medical Lake without a first down until midway through the third quarter, sophomore kicker Johnathan Reeves booted his first two field goals in a blossoming young career and had multiple touchbacks on kickoffs, letting it be known the Hawks’ third phase of football is alive and well. Colville led 51-0 at halftime en route to a 54-0 Northeast A League victory against Medical Lake to improve to 3-0 in league, 5-0 overall.
“Johnathan is a soccer player that I had in PE class last year. After watching him kick some balls around I asked him to come out for football,” Head Coach Greg Mace explained. “He was unsure of that notion at first, but decided to give it a try, and boy oh boy am I glad he did. He is a real weapon for our football team. He works extremely hard at his craft, and given his youth, I believe he has an opportunity to kick at the next level.”
Reeves, now 21-for-23 on point-after-touchdown attempts this season, hit a pair of field goals, the first right before the buzzer sounded at halftime from 26 yards out and then added a 32-yard make in the fourth quarter. A 47-yard try in the third period came up short, but Mace said he has the confidence to see Reeves in similar distances going forward.
The Crimson Hawks got the festivities off to a bang against the Cardinals (0-3, 0-5), with quarterback Cale Roy hitting Allan McKeraghan for a 53-yard scoring strike on the game’s opening play from scrimmage. After a quick three-and-out for Medical Lake, Roy connected with McKeraghan on the second play of the next series for another 53-yard touchdown pass, this one a short throw that the senior receiver did most of the work on. Displaying the speed that saw him finish second in the Class 1A state meet in the 100-meter dash, McKeraghan left closing defenders in the dust down the far sideline, staking Colville to a 13-0 lead with more than 10 minutes still remaining in the first quarter.
“Obviously Allan is very dangerous with the ball in his hands. We look to get him the ball both vertically and in the short pass game,” Mace said. “We will rely on him moving forward in big games to provide us with his big-play abilities.
“He is always a threat to take one to the house, and defenses have to be aware of that.”
Defensively, the Blackshirts were a tide of crimson in shutting out the Cardinals.
Medical Lake went without a first down for the duration of the first half against the starting defense, totaling just seven yards in the first 24 minutes. With the young Hawks in during a running-clock second half, it did not get much better for the visitors. The Cardinals did get a first down - just one - as Colville earned its second shutout of the season.
Medical Lake finished the game with 32 total yards of offense on 36 plays. In fact, the Hawks had 20 players register tackles in the game, one of the highest totals in recent memory.
“This is a physical group that rallies to the ball and covers well on the back end in the secondary,” said Mace. “They have the right attitude and effort on that side of the ball. I believe that we have the mentality to keep up a certain level of dominance even as we move through the tougher parts of our schedule.
“These games will get tougher and the offenses will get better, but I trust that our defense will stick together and figure out ways to get stops.”
Roy would throw two more touchdown passes in the first half, one to McEvoy on a 45-yard fade and a fastball on 4th-and-7 to Braden Dunham on the first play of the second quarter. It was the sophomore Dunham’s first career touchdown, a highlight-worthy catch in the back of the end zone.
Freshman running back Mason Beardsley got his first career score in the opening period, a drive where he did most of the heavy lifting with elusive runs. Beardsley finished the game leading the team with 86 yards on just six carries.
“Mason has an opportunity to be a really special back. We wanted to get him involved after missing a week due to an injury,” Mace said. “He had several explosive plays in the game, and he is capable of doing just that on a weekly basis.”
Maybe most satisfying to the staff and the home crowd was seeing the entire roster that suited up get action in the game. The second- and third-string defense kept the shutout intact, and the offense managed to drive the ball deep enough in Medical Lake territory to give Reeves opportunities with two field goal attempts.
“Those young guys work so hard for us on a daily basis at practice running the scout team,” Mace said. “They are a huge part of any success that we have as a program and they go largely unnoticed. I was really proud of the way they played on both sides of the ball, but especially defensively. They flew around and were able to maintain a shutout.
“The future is bright for Colville Football.”
A showdown at Freeman looms this evening, with the Scotties fresh off a 33-7 victory against Deer Park. Now 3-2 on the season (1-1 NEA), Freeman was picked by most pundits to finish first or second in the league, along with Lakeside. The two favorites played on September 23rd, with the Eagles winning in Rockford 36-27.
“We do believe that we match up well with anyone in our league. Going into the year we didn’t fully know exactly what we would look like,” Mace said. “We have gotten better every week, and we feel we have the athletes to compete with anybody in our league at this time.
“Games are won on the field and our coaches and athletes are excited to compete against top competition in our league and let the chips fall where they may.”
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Colville 54, Medical Lake 0
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
COL - Allan McKeraghan 53 pass from Cale Roy (Johnathan Reeves kick)
COL - McKeraghan 53 pass from Roy (Reeves kick)
COL - Mason Beardsley 2 run (run failed)
COL - Colbie McEvoy 45 pass from Roy (Reeves kick)
Second Quarter
COL - Braden Dunham 12 pass from Roy (Reeves kick)
COL - Isaiah Porter-Mills 24 run (Reeves kick)
COL - Emmet Marshall 2 run (Reeves kick)
COL - Reeves 26 FG
Third Quarter
None
Fourth Quarter
COL - Reeves 32 FG
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Medical Lake: Isiah Giles 4-6, Dalton Witherrite 9-4, Andrew Roberts 1-2, Sam Bliven 1-0
Colville: Beardsley 6-86, Porter-Mills 4-49, Hunter Gleave 7-44, Bridger Lewis 7-21, Logan Ottak 1-9, Brock Benson 1-3, Sam Mitchell 1-2, Marshall 1-2, Parker Richesin 1-0, Cale Roy 3-(minus) 3, Layton Demmitt 1-(minus) 3, Team 2-(minus) 6
Passing
Medical Lake: Giles 6-20-0-15, Alex Grubaugh 1-1-0-5
Colville: Roy 6-9-0-189
Receiving
Medical Lake: Roberts 3-8, Giles 1-5, Grubaugh 1-4, Bliven 2-3
Colville: McKeraghan 3-119, McEvoy 2-58, Dunham 1-12
