Prosser Mustang recap |
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Lynden shocks Prosser in double OTDecember 7, 2008 by Scott Spruill TACOMA — Two minutes left and a 15-point lead. “We were all thinking this is it, we can be state champs,” said Prosser senior Scott Zediker. “It’s all right in front of us. A couple minutes and we’re No. 1.” But those two minutes and what waited beyond turned a day of dominance into a stunning and frustrating finish for the Mustangs, who were so close to the Class 2A state football title on Saturday they were nearly posing for pictures. One moment Prosser was celebrating opening a 21-6 lead with 2:22 left in the game, and before anyone had time to catch a breath Lynden was hoisting the gold ball with a 35-34 double-overtime victory — the longest game in championship history. Prosser and Lynden scored touchdowns in both overtime sessions, but the Mustangs’ bid for the title ended with a failed pass attempt on a two-point conversion. “I don’t think I’m feeling the full effect of this yet,” said Derek Small, one of several seniors eager to duplicate last year’s 14-0 title season. “I don’t know what happened. I felt like we were in control the entire game.” Prosser was indeed in control most of the afternoon, socking Lynden with scoring drives on its first two possessions for a 14-0 lead at the break and rolling up more than 500 yards of offense. It was the same on defense as the Mustangs intercepted two passes and stopped the Lions on downs three times. But when Lynden finally got what it wished for — a physical advantage against a tiring opponent — the momentum switch was as decisive as it was sudden. The Lions scored twice in the final 1:31 to force overtime — the second score set up by a successful onside kick — and twice again in the overtimes. “We just couldn’t stop them,” said Prosser coach Tom Moore, who saw his son Kirby play his last high school game. “We couldn’t stop them on defense and our special teams had a couple breakdowns. We played well, we just couldn’t finish the game.” Despite the loss, Kirby Moore’s final time in a red jersey was one for the records. He set 2A championship records for receptions (14) and yardage (267) and scored three touchdowns, the last a 10-yard strike from Jordan Durbin that he finished by running through a defender to answer Lynden’s score in the second OT. It was Moore’s 38-yard scoring catch from Durbin — who racked up 375 yards and four TDs — that seemed to be the backbreaker for Lynden with 2:22 remaining. “In the first half our offense was playing great and we had a lot of good things happening,” said Moore, who had one of Prosser’s two interceptions early in the fourth quarter. “Then we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times. At the end some things didn’t go our way and they took advantage. They played a great game.” Lynden, winners of 10 straight after a 2-2 start, managed just one touchdown for all but two minutes of regulation. Then, in a sudden rush, the Lions punched in four touchdowns in a span of 15 plays. “It’s indescribable,” said Lynden junior Blair Bomber, who was a starter on Lynden’s 2006 title team and on last year’s squad that lost 47-30 to Prosser in the semifinals. “I felt like I let my team down (covering Moore), but the way everybody fought back was amazing.” In a switch from last year’s meeting when Prosser wore out Lynden on the ground in the fourth quarter, the Lions rode the hard running of 225-pound David Gaylord, who combined with quarterback Jordan Hastings for 167 yards rushing on 37 carries. Gaylord’s touchdown and two-point conversion tied the game at 21-21 with 53 seconds left, and he scored in the second OT. “We didn’t let up and we didn’t underestimate them,” insisted Small. “They’re just a great team and they made a great comeback. We had opportunities to do more, but that’s how the game is. The momentum swung so much, so fast.” In a program that graduated nine all-league defenders last year, including a Division I recruit in Cody Bruns, this crew won 13 straight games before finally falling in double overtime of the championship game. By any measure, even for Prosser, that’s a big season. “You get the highs, you get the lows,” Zediker said. “It hurts but, I mean … we played our best. I know real soon I’m going to feel good about this.” Added Small, “It’s hard to lose when you come this far and put so much effort into it. But a lot of people counted us out because of all the athletes we lost. We still accomplished a lot and got to play for it all.” Regulation Prosser — Dylan Bolt 1 run (Miguel Munoz kick good) Prosser — Kirby Moore 51 pass from Jordan Durbin (Munoz kick) Lynden — Ryan Seto 12 pass from Jordan Hastings (kick failed) Prosser — Moore 38 pass from Durbin (Munoz kick) Lynden — Seto 18 pass from Hastings (Joel Brown kick good) Lynden — David Gaylord 4 run (conversion good) First Overtime Prosser — Matt Young 23 pass from Durbin (Munoz kick) Lynden — Blair Bomber 5 pass from Hastings (Brown kick) Second Overtime Lynden — Gaylord 1 run (Brown kick) Prosser — Moore 10 pass from Durbin (conversion failed) INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING — Prosser, Dylan Bolt 22-42, Jordan Durbin 8-44, Dominic Garza 1-21, Miguel Godinez 1-4, Matt Young 1-(minus 1). Lynden, Jordan Hastings 20-84, David Gaylord 18-76, Blair Bomber 2-12, Brett Bajema 2-9 PASSING — Prosser, Jordan Durbin 24-35-1-375, Kirby Moore 1-1-0-17. Lynden, Jordan Hastings 19-30-2-245, David Gaylord 0-1-0-0. RECEIVING — Prosser, Kirby Moore 14-267, Anthony Flores 7-76, Dominic Garza 2-8, Matt Young 1-3, Beau Hazzard 1-18. Lynden, Blair Bomber 8-62, Ryan Seto 5-86, Jordan Weeks 5-83, Jace Baxter-Bowen 1-14.
Injured finger grounds Mustangs’ attackDecember 7, 2008 by Scott Sandsberry TACOMA — The grousing in the Tacoma Dome stands and along press row was becoming a chorus, with this refrain: What the heck are they DOING? Why were the Prosser Mustangs, the best passing team in the state, which had riddled its Class 2A championship-game foe for nearly 200 yards through the air in the first QUARTER, running the ball … again and again and again? Had they gotten conservative? Had the Mustang coaches decided to sit on the 14-0 first-period lead they had achieved almost effortlessly behind Jordan Durbin’s arm? No. But those coaches had a problem: Jordan Durbin’s hand. Specifically, the index finger on his passing hand, which had swollen up to the width of a jumbo dill pickle. “I couldn’t grip the ball,” he admitted later. “I just … couldn’t get a grip on it.” He injured the finger while playing safety in the final minute of the first half, when he and cornerback Anthony Flores both went up to try to take the ball away from 6-foot-5 Lynden receiver Ryan Seto. Flores came away with the ball and the interception. Durbin and the Mustangs came away with a big problem. “It’s probably broken,” Mustang coach Tom Moore said. “We won’t know until he has X-rays, but … he couldn’t grip the ball.” Which is why Prosser went to three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-artificial-turf in the second half. And it just wasn’t the same. Until Durbin’s injury, on first-and-10 or second-and-7-or-more, the 5-foot-11 senior was 12-for-14 for 198 yards. Kirby Moore had six catches for 143 yards. The only reason Prosser was up by two touchdowns instead of three was because Durbin — in one of his very rare misses — overthrew Anthony Flores on a fourth-and-goal pass that would have completed a back-breaking 98-yard scoring drive. Lynden simply had no answer for that passing attack. In the second half, though, Prosser tried to ride out its lead by pounding it out on the ground, but Lynden was simply too big and strong for that. The Mustangs’ defensive line was giving up better than 25 pounds a man on the line, and Lynden quarterback Jordan Hastings had all the time he needed to find receivers. Or to run — the 6-2, 185-pound Hastings and 6-4, 225-pound running back David Gaylord were bigger than any of Prosser’s defenders, and combined to run for 160 yards. It was only a matter of time before the Lions began to put the ball into the end zone. When they absolutely had to, of course, Prosser turned back to the passing game, and Durbin found Kirby Moore with a 38-yard scoring bomb that gave Prosser a 21-6 lead with just 2:22 remaining. Game over, right? Nope. Lynden scored quickly, got an onsides kick and scored again, got the two-point conversion to tie it. By the overtime, the Lions had so worn down the smaller Mustangs that it was obvious Prosser wasn’t going to be able to stop them. When Prosser considered going for a two-point conversion after the second OT touchdown, I thought it was a great call — and even though it didn’t pay off, I still think it was the right call. Gutsy, and right. As Prosser’s players shambled off the field, many of them in tears, I held out a hand to Jordan Durbin. My intent was simply to shake the hand of a player I thought had played brilliantly — 375 passing yards, four TDs — not knowing, at that moment, his hand was one big, pulsating ball of pain. Nor did he mention it then that his finger was hurting, or even broken. Instead, he simply commended the Lions. “They came out and played hard,” he said. “There’s probably some things we should have done, but hey, shoulda, coulda, woulda. Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose. They played great.” And that was it. No mention of the hand. I doubt Tom Moore would have mentioned it either, except that I asked him specifically about the conservative play-calling in the second half. That’s when he told me they’d had no choice with Jordan’s hand, and I found Jordan again to get a look at that swollen thing. Holy moly. Yep, there are a lot of what-if’s that could be thrown out about this one. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. And yes, Lynden played a great game. But Jordan Durbin, wow.What a great gamer.
Decision fit Mustangs’ ‘go for the win’ mindsetDecember 7, 2008 by Scott Spruill TACOMA — There was never any doubt. When it came time to go for the tie or go for the win, all the red hats nodded in agreement. That the decision to go for a two-point conversion ended in a stunning 35-34 loss to Lynden in double overtime didn’t change the thinking at all. “That’s what I love about this team. We go for the win,” said a dejected Kirby Moore after Jordan Durbin’s under-pressure pass was tipped away and fell incomplete to end the season. “We felt we could get it right there. We had faith in our offense, and that’s what we’re all about. It just didn’t happen.” Moore had just hauled in a 10-yard scoring pass from Durbin — their third such connection of the day — to answer Lynden’s score in the second overtime. Both teams scored in the first OT and kicked their PATs, and Lynden stuck with that plan in the second session since the Lions went first. But when Prosser answered to draw within 35-34, a team that was having trouble stopping a charged-up Lynden squad opted to try and end it right there. And what better way to take that risk than put it in the hands of Durbin, who had completed more than 500 passes in two seasons. “It was a sprint-out to get me outside of the pocket,” said Durbin, who completed 24 of 35 in the game for 375 yards and four TDs. “But they had that covered pretty well. There wasn’t much I could do.” As Aaron Mattox and Taylor Creighton closed in for a sack, Durbin threw a high ball while backing up and Lynden’s 6-foot-5 Ryan Seto batted it away with Moore and Dominic Garza in the vicinity. An especially cruel end for a program and personnel so adept at throwing the ball. Two-and-a-half yards to a state championship. “I didn’t think we would ever stop them when they had the ball,” said Prosser coach Tom Moore. “So we took our shot. We took our shot right there to win it.”
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Dubin's broken finger keeps Prosser grounded in second halfBy Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writerTACOMA -- While 35-34 will no doubt live for a long and painful time in the memory of Prosser football fans, there is another set of numbers that was just as costly to the Mustangs on Saturday: 16-8. Sixteen runs, eight throws -- that was Prosser's play-calling in the second half of the 2A state championship game against Lynden until the Mustangs were forced to throw on a last-second drive at the end of the game and then in two overtimes. Spectators were scratching their heads. After all, the Mustangs galloped up and down the field on their opening three drives, scoring a pair of touchdowns on a 1-yard run by Dylan Bolt and a 51-yard catch-and-run by Kirby Moore from Jordan Durbin. Combined with a terrific defensive stand on Lynden's first drive -- the Lions failed to get any points after an 81-yard kickoff return by Blair Bomber -- those two early scores plus a near-miss after driving 93 yards had Prosser firmly in control. Durbin had 190 yards passing at the half, hitting on 10 of 15 throws. So why the sudden shift to the ground? Well, the play that likely decided the game -- maybe more so than Lynden's recovery of a late onside kick -- was an interception at the end of the second quarter. Durbin, playing safety, was in on the coverage when teammate Anthony Flores picked off Lynden QB Jordan Hastings with 35 seconds left in the half. While Flores came up with the ball, Durbin walked away with a broken index finger on his throwing hand. It had swollen considerably by the end of the game, and it kept the Mustangs grounded in the second half. Prosser ran the ball 19 times for 53 yards in the second half and two overtimes. "I tried not to think about it," Durbin said, "but I had no pressure" on the ball. Which made his 38-yard connection to Kirby Moore with 2:22 to play all the more impressive. Moore broke free running through the middle, and Durbin found him in stride behind the coverage. "I just dropped back and knew I had to throw it," Durbin said. "Get it out there and let him run under it." Durbin also led the Mustangs on a desperation drive in the closing seconds of the game after Lynden tied it at 21 with 53 seconds left in regulation. After the kickoff, Prosser started at its own 27 with 46 seconds on the clock. Durbin clicked on 3 of 5 passes, all to Moore, and the Mustangs reached the Lynden 30 with 11 seconds on the clock and one timeout. But on the next play, Durbin came under heavy pressure, and his throw to Matt Young came up short and was picked off with no time left. Despite what was -- by their standards -- an off day on offense, the Mustangs still set or tied several 2A championship game records. Moore was responsible for three marks -- most receptions (14), most receiving yards (267) and most touchdown receptions (3, ties a record). Also, the Mustangs' 392 yards passing is an outright record, and their 25 completions ties a mark, as did their five punts.
Dec, 8, 2008PREP FOOTBALL: Lynden wins Class 2A title in 2OTTACOMA — Lynden football team, meet the glass slipper.Glass slipper, meet the Lynden football team. Try it on, Lions. See how it feels, because the last few minutes of the Class 2A state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 6, was about as close to an honest-to-goodness Cinderella story of a finish as you’re going to find in high school sports. The Lions scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes of regulation to force overtime and then shut down the Mustangs on a 2-point conversion attempt in the second overtime that would have won the game to shock top-ranked Prosser 35-34 and win their second state title in the past three years at the Tacoma Dome. It was an improbable ending to one of the most improbable comebacks in the history of the Lynden football program. It left the Lions crying, smiling, and pointing to the heavens while trying to figure out what exactly had transpired to help them claim the school’s fourth state championship in its history. “Our kids found a way,” Lynden coach Curt Kramme said. “The football gods were shining on us here this afternoon.” The game appeared to be over late in the fourth quarter when Prosser’s Kirby Moore reeled in his second touchdown catch of the game, a 38-yarder from Jordan Durbin with two minutes, 22 seconds to play to give the Mustangs a 21-6 lead. Lynden, however, had other ideas. The Lions marched 57 yards in four plays to cut the lead to 21-13 with 1:31 left in the game. Jordan Hastings hit Ryan Seto for an 18-yard touchdown pass over the middle, and Seto bulled his way into the end zone to make it a one-score game. Following Seto’s score, Jace Baxter-Bowen recovered Lynden’s onside kick attempt to give the Lions the ball back again, this time at Prosser’s 47-yard line. Jordan Weeks set up the next score, pulling in a 41-yard pass amid three defenders to give Lynden first-and-goal from the 4-yard line. David Gaylord powered into the end zone on the next play and then caught Hastings’ pass on the 2-point conver-sion attempt to tie the game. “We came out in this game knowing that we were the underdogs,” Hastings said. “People underestimated us and thought that we wouldn’t win.” Even after Lynden completed its miraculous comeback, the game still was far from being decided. Prosser scored on its first posses-sion in overtime, with Durbin throwing to Matt Young for a 23-yard score on fourth down. And then the Mustangs battled back to score again when Moore grabbed his third touchdown of the day after back-to-back overtime touchdowns by Lynden. At that point the Mustangs elected to go for the win and the 2-point conversion rather than kick an extra point and continue playing. The next few seconds were a blur for nearly every player on the field. Taylor Creighton pressured Durbin into tossing the ball up to the end zone where Seto stepped in front of an open Mustangs receiver and knocked the ball to the turf to give the Lions the win. “I can’t tell you what happened,” Creighton said. “I didn’t know if somebody caught it, if we knocked it down. I just heard everybody start yelling. It was do or die time. They win, we win, it was going to happen. That’s all I could think about.” As the Lions rushed on the field from the sidelines as the conversion attempt fell incomplete, Creighton fell to his knees and put his hands over his face in disbelief. Some of his other Lynden teammates who were on the field just stared at each other to make sure what had happened was real. “It was an unbelievable game, it’s just incomparable,” Bomber said. “You just look at the way everybody fought in this game. It was just unbelievable.” After the game, most of the Lions were at a loss for words to describe the win and the feelings that followed such a spectacular finish. “I haven’t really had time to reflect on what happened, but to win a game like this over a team like Prosser just makes it that much more special,” Kramme said. “And that’s because of what their football program is. To me it’s the most consistent high school program in the state. Tom Moore is a great coach, and there were times when we couldn’t stop them at all. But our kids found a way to win.” |
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