Broncos roll to 34-0 win over Liberty, prep for homecoming showdown with Kettle Falls

Headed to Spangle for Friday night football with Liberty, head coach Greg Whitmore wanted his players to strive for perfection. The Broncos reach for that goal each week during practice and aim to hit the mark on game nights.

Whitmore knew Liberty’s football team hadn’t scored a point yet this season, but he wanted the Broncos to remain focused just the same. In the end, Lind-Ritzville/Sprague won the game 34-0, but with a few more miscues than Whitmore had hoped for.

“We did some good things. We made some big plays,” Whitmore said. “The defense was outstanding. The junior varsity came in and played really well on defense too.”

The varsity offense had a couple of misfires including some snaps from center that sailed past the quarterback.

But when the offense was clicking on all cylinders, they found their way into the endzone.

Connor O’Neill started the scoring in the first quarter with a six-yard run. Salvador Huitron provided the point after kick.

Cort Ruzicka had his moment in the spotlight as a young player in the first quarter when he scored on a nine-yard run. Huitron’s kick was good.

Dylan Hartz, working from quarterback, scored the third touchdown of the first quarter on a 27-yard run. The point after kick was blocked.

“Dylan made a good read and saw the defense bite on a running back,” Whitmore said.

In the second quarter Jake Dewald caught his second touchdown pass of the season and made a nice run for the Broncos on a 50-yard scoring play. Huitron’s kick was good.

The final score of the game came in the third quarter when O’Neill scored on a 12-yard pass play from Hartz. Huitron’s kick was the final point of the game.

Hartz finished the night completing four of seven passes for 104 yards.

O’Neill was the leading rusher with 102 yards on six carries. Starting back Chris Steinmetz sat out his second game in a row, resting a leg injury. He is expected to return this Friday against Kettle Falls.

Drew Wilke rushed for 29 yards on two carries.

The Broncos will host Kettle Falls Friday in the first of four critical league games.

“Kettle Falls is a physical football team,” Whitmore said. “They handled Oroville pretty easily. There are a lot of wrestlers on that team and they are tough mentally. They’ll be ready for us.”

Kettle Falls scored points against Reardan with the passing game and then hurt Davenport with the running game so Whitmore is preparing his defense for an all-out attack.

“We need to stop the run first,” he said.

On defense Kettle Falls will line up with a five-man front and likely will play man-to-man.

Whitmore also expects them to blitz, a lot and often.

The junior varsity will play at 4 p.m. prior to the varsity homecoming game at 7 p.m.