Bronco offense sputters in loss to Lake Roosevelt

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos football team hung with the Lake Roosevelt Raiders for the game's first 24 minutes, but were stifled on offense in the second half of the team's 25-7 loss on Sept. 20.

The loss, in which the Broncos totaled just 100 yards of offense, moved LRS to 1-2 (0-0 in league play) on the season with one more non-league game this week before their league season begins.

While LRS struggled on offense throughout the entire game, the defense put up an admirable effort in limiting a high-powered Lake Roosevelt offense to 25 points. The Raiders scored 55 points in their season-opening win against Oroville the previous week and averaged 39.9 points per game last season, when they advanced to the first round of the 2B State Championship Tournament.

But the team's offensive struggles and a stout Raiders defense were too much for the Broncos to overcome, as the team finished the game with just five first downs and went 0-11 on converting third down attempts. On 15 rushing attempts, LRS managed to gain a total of just 7 rushing yards, an average of 0.5 yards per rush.

Broncos head coach Greg Whitmore said that they expected Lake Roosevelt to be stiff competition, but that he still wasn't pleased with how his team played in any phase of the game, including the coaching.

"It's one thing to face a team you're not as strong or fast as, but we just made a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties," said Whitmore, whose team was penalized seven times for 55 yards. "I didn't come away feeling very good about our performance, so hopefully we can play better. You just want to get better game after game, and we felt like we did get better from game No. 1 to game No. 2, and even though we played a better team in week 3, it didn't feel like we got better."

The offensive highlight of the game for the Broncos came late in the second quarter. After a pass from junior quarterback Drew Kelly to junior wide receiver Carson Ayers went for 13 yards and a first and goal situation at the 7 yard line, LRS found itself facing second and goal from the 26 yard line following a run play for minimal gain, a 5-yard false start penalty and a 15-yard penalty for an illegal chop block.

Facing second and long, Kelly found senior running back Austin Thompson on a seam route for the 26-yard touchdown pass. Thompson out-muscled the Lake Roosevelt defender for the football and then dived over the goal line and into the end zone for the first--and only--score of the game for the Broncos.

Kelly would finish the game 14-25 passing for 93 yards and one touchdown pass. LRS noticeably took more shots down the field in the game than the previous week in the win against Northwest Christian, something Whitmore said last week that they were wanting to do.

Tomorrow, the Broncos travel to Burbank to take on the Columbia-Burbank Coyotes. LRS played Columbia-Burbank last season at home, defeating the Coyotes 20-6 on Homecoming.

On the 2019 season, the Coyotes have gotten off to a quick 3-0 start, most recently pummeling Kittitas/Thorp 52-0 last week. Whitmore expects this year's Columbia-Burbank team to be one of the top two teams in their league and be in contention to make the 2B State Championship Tournament.

"Going on the road after a game that we didn't play very well in, and them being 3-0 and us 1-2, we've got our work cut out for us," said Whitmore. "We're going to have to play awfully well."

Kickoff for tomorrow's game in Burbank is set for 7 p.m.