Postseason hits fifth gear Pomeroy, Colfax begin WIAA state volleyball; Lapwai, Kendrick in IHSAA st
Lewiston Teibune
November 7, 2021
Weekly primer: Postseason hits fifth gear
Pomeroy, Colfax begin WIAA state volleyball; Lapwai, Kendrick in IHSAA state football semis
By DONN WALDEN SPORTS STAFF
The stage now is set for the final push for most of the area's high school teams in the postseason.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association on Sunday released its brackets for all of its state football tournaments, plus the Class 1B and 2B state volleyball event. All of those tourneys begin this weekend.
The WIAA football season will conclude with state championship games, the Gridiron Classic, at numerous sites throughout the state Dec. 4. Class 1B will conduct its final at noon that day at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, while the 2B final will take place at 4 p.m. that day at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood.
The volleyball tournament will take place Thursday and Friday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Of course, the football tournament in Idaho will start its semifinal round this weekend.
Here's a closer look at this week's action: (re-ordered)
Idaho Class 1A Division I football
Lapwai pulled off a major stunner this past weekend, knocking off Prairie, who was the No. 4 seed in the tournament and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the state media poll, 68-36.
The two teams were without key parts for most of the game. The Pirates, who were undefeated entering the contest, did not have senior running back Brody Hasselstrom for the entirety of the game because of an injury issue, and the Wildcats (8-2) played the majority of the contest without sophomore running back Ahlius Yearout, who broke his collarbone on the first series.
Despite that, senior quarterback Titus Yearout had the game of his life. He was 15-for-28 passing for 255 yards and five touchdowns, running 31 times forf 254 yards and four scores.
Now, Lapwai has to summon up the same kind of effort once again this week as it has to play top-seeded and top-ranked Raft River (8-0), which just discarded Potlatch 63-22 on Saturday. The teams play at noon Pacific this Saturday at Raft River High School, more than seven hours away.
The winner gets the winner of Oakley and Butte County in the state title game Nov. 19-20.
Idaho Class 1A Division II football
Kendrick was so dominant during the regular season that it didn't even have to play in the first round of the tournament. But the layoff certainly didn't hurt the Tigers this weekend.
Kendrick (7-2) scored the first 20 points and rolled past Horseshoe Bend, the Long Pin Conference champion and the second-ranked team in the state, in an impressive 48-8 victory Friday at Bengal Field.
The Tigers are going to have to take the hard road in order to win the title. After Horseshoe Bend, they now are going to have to take on third-ranked Castleford in a game set for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.
Castleford (9-1) wasn't even ranked in the classification when the season began. But the Wolves ran off six consecutive victories before dropping a 32-22 decision Oct. 15 at top-ranked Carey. Castleford has had three consecutive convincing wins since, including twice in the postseason.
Kendrick lost to Oakley, which is ranked No. 3 in Class 1A DI, on Sept. 11 and to Genesee on Oct. 22, and has scored 50 or more points in five games this season.
The winner gets the winner of Carey and Dietrich in the state title game Nov. 19-20.
Washington Class 2A swimming
Also the Pullman swimming team will be competing Friday and Saturday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
Heat sheets will be coming out later this week, but at the Class 2A district meet Oct. 29-30 at Washington State's Gibb Poll, the Greyhounds set two district and school records in the 200 free and 400 free relays in winning 10 of 11 event finals. They also had the top three finishers in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle.
Pullman has state qualifiers in all three relays, the 200 free (Poppy Edge and Melrose Gilbert), the 200 IM (Bree Myers and Madi Weber), the 50 free (Mya Reed), the 100 butterfly (Nelly Peng and Codi Thomas), the 100 free (Reed and Myers), the 500 free (Edge and Gilbert), the 100 back (Abby Adams) and the 100 breaststroke (Weber and Thomas).
Washington Class 1B volleyball
Pomeroy (13-8) had to work hard to claim a berth at the state tournament. After disposing of Liberty Christian in the first round of the Southeast 1B League's district tournamnent Tuesday, the Pirates fell to top-seeded Oakesdale in a semifinal match Thursday.
Having to go through the losers bracket to get the third and final seed, Pomeroy did just that Saturday at DeSales High School in Walla Walla. First, the Pirates took down the Wheat Division's No. 1 seed, Sunnyside Christian, 25-11, 25-19, 25-20. Then, Pomeroy rolled Garfield-Palouse in the third-place match 25-18, 25-9, 25-21 to punch its ticket to Yakima.
Coach Adam Van Vogt talked about his entire team having to take the bull by the horns when they needed to.
"If I just talked about one or two players, it really wouldn't do the team justice," he said.
The Pirates, the ninth-seeded team at state who won the event in 2019, will face Naselle (15-3), the second-place finisher in the District 4 tournament. The Comets enter as the No. 8 seed. That match takes place at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, with the winner moving on to play at 8:15 p.m. the same day. The loser also plays at the same time on the same day.
Washington Class 2B volleyball
Colfax seemingly had no issues throughout the regular season in the Northeast 2B League, where its main competition had been Asotin and Lind-Ritzville/Sprague.
However, an expected meeting in the semifinal round of the district tournament never materalized because the Panthers lost in the first round.
No matter, because the Bulldogs (23-2) cruised through the event. They dispatched eighth-seeded Reardan 25-11, 25-20, 25-21 this past Monday, then dug deep to take out No. 5 seed Upper Columbia Academy 25-20, 24-26, 25-17, 25-18 to clinch their state tournament berth Wednesday. On Thursday, Colfax, the top seed, sailed past No. 2 seed LRS 25-12, 25-17, 25-19 to win the district.
Third-year coach Brandy Brown will be leading her team to their second state tournament berth (because of COVID-19 restrictions, the tourney was not conducted last season).
The Bulldogs have a rich, winning tradition. Since 2004, the school has won eight state championships, including three straight from 2013-15. Colfax claimed the 2004 and 2005 Class 1A titles, then had a remarkable run from 2008-15 where they won five times and placed second two others.
The Bulldogs, who are the No. 2 seed this year, will take on Wahkiakum of Cathalmet, Wash., the 15th-seeded team who placed sixth at the District 4 tournament, at 9:45 a.m. Thursday. The winner advances to play either Lind-Ritzville/Sprague or Raymond at 3:15 p.m. the same day. The loser will play the loser of the LRS-Raymond match at the same time on the same day.
Washington Class 1B football
The class (pun intended) of the Southeast 1B League was Pomeroy. The Pirates ran the table, winning all 10 of their games this season, including a perfect 7-0 mark in league play.
Pomeroy posted eye-popping numbers on the scoreboard throughout the season on offense, but its defense was just as stout. The Pirates' average margin of victory was 56 points. Pomeroy tallied 60 or more points in every game but two, scored 74 on two different occasions, had 76 on Oct. 15 against DeSales, tallied 84 in its season opener Sept. 3 against Waterville and scored an astounding 104 on Oct. 1 against Touchet.
The Pirates finished the regular season No. 3 in the Washington Associated Press media poll and topped the WIAA's RPI rankings.
Because of all of that, Pomeroy, which actually is the No. 4 overall seed, earned a first-round bye and will not have to play this weekend. The Pirates will take on the winner of this weekend's Waterville-Naselle game the weekend of Nov. 19-20.
