There was nothing subtle about the thrilling conclusion to Friday's Sawtooth Conference eight-man football barnburner between top-ranked Carey and upset-minded Richfield, on the Richfield gridiron.
It came down to smash mouth football—one final play on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard-line. Having seen its 26-14 third-quarter lead evaporate and faced with a 28-26 deficit with 22 seconds left, Carey had one chance to avoid its first loss in Richfield in 22 years.
Carey coach Lane Kirkland called time out and huddled with his team. Everybody knew the stakes for a heavily favored Panther football program that has played in the State 1A Division 2 championship game for two straight years. On the sidelines were hundreds, waiting breathlessly for the climax.
"The game was on the line," said eighth-year coach Kirkland (55-16), whose Panther teams are 23-3 since 2006.
Getting the call for the biggest play of Carey's young season was junior running back Gonzalo Zarate. He had already run for 30 of Carey's 48 yards on the drive that started at the Tiger 49-yard-line with 4:44 left in a fourth quarter dominated by Richfield's passing game.
Kirkland recalled afterward, "We went into the huddle and the first thing anyone said came from (senior) Heith Adamson, asking Gonzalo if he could run the 34 drive. Gonzalo said yes and our linemen got all misty-eyed thinking about it.
"Gonzalo ran it in. He could have run that play for 30 yards. That was power football. I was proud of his effort all night. Gonzalo had a huge night. He showed a lot of heart."
Zarate (203 rushing yards on 25 carries) scored his second touchdown of the game and added the two-point conversion lifting Carey (2-0, 1-0 league) to its 19th consecutive Sawtooth Conference triumph over three seasons. But Richfield (1-1, 0-1) was right there, just two seasons removed from back-to-back 0-9 campaigns in 2005-06.
"Richfield came to hit," said Kirkland. "It was a game of different momentum changes, but in the end I thought we started to wear them down. We were mentally tough."
Forcing Carey to go deep to the well was Richfield's determined senior quarterback Tel Clark (12-of-24, 193 yards, 3 TD) and junior running back Michael Lezamiz (21 carries for 152 yards, 1 TD). Clark tossed 31-yard and 20-yard scoring passes to Tucker Smith in a four-minute span of the final quarter to rally Richfield.
Kirkland said, "Clark is a great quarterback—great deception. And (Luke) Wood was a great hitter, especially in the first half, and a great athlete."
Keying on running back Adamson, Richfield's 190-pound senior Wood (13 tackles) shut down Carey's inside running game in the first half but Zarate (104 yards first half) kept Carey's offense moving along with sweeps and power runs.
Richfield, coming off a season opening 26-21 win over Lighthouse Christian in Twin Falls, was stubborn on defense from the get-go. Turnovers led to the first two TDs, the teams trading scores, then Clark's 52-yard rollout pass to Jose Rivas (4 catches, 103 yards, 13 tackles) set up a 13-yard TD by Lezamiz.
Carey answered back when Adamson took the ensuing kickoff and barreled 87 yards to paydirt for a 14-14 halftime tie.
The Panthers seized the initiative in the third quarter by relying heavily on its "gap buster" running attack from the shotgun formation. And, on defense, the Carey blitz led by ends Zarate and Wacey Barg got QB Clark a little jittery.
Kirkland said, "The gap busters allow our athletes to be athletes and our blockers to be blockers. It got us some momentum in the third quarter and we used our size to our advantage in getting the lead."
Junior quarterback Dillon Simpson (21 carries, 74 yards) took the ball and ran the gap busters as Carey scored twice for a 26-14 third-quarter lead—Adamson finding a seam for a 15-yard TD catch and Zarate running from 24 yards after a Todd Peck fumble recovery.
Give Richfield and coach Garr Ward plenty of credit. The Tigers, down a dozen, went to their running game with slippery back Lezamiz and hard driver Wood. They rushed for 201 yards, within eyesight of Carey's 311 rushing yards. Total yardage was nearly even—Carey 496 and Richfield 480.
Richfield put together the game's longest drive, a 14-play, 85-yard, six-minute march that made the score 26-22.
Then, like Salmon River did effectively in last year's State 1A Division 2 championship game against Carey, the Tigers pulled off a successful "cluster" onsides kick. Faced with a horde of Tigers descending on him in a cluster, Carey's Blair Peck thought he had recovered the ball. The officials ruled otherwise, Lezamiz pouncing on it.
Once again, Richfield gave the ball to Lezamiz, who swept the left end for 20 yards and a first-and-goal at the three. A 17-yard sack by Zarate and Wacey Barg threw QB Clark back to the 20, but Clark found Tucker Smith all alone behind the secondary for Smith's second straight touchdown reception.
Kirkland said, "We had difficulty defending the pass."
Richfield players and fans could hardly believe it, leading 28-26 with 4:44 left. The Tigers tried another onsides kick but it wasn't long enough and Carey took over at the Richfield 49. Zarate ran for 10 yards, then 10 more on a wild sideline-to-sideline scamper. A 15-yard late hit penalty whistled on Clark for tackling QB Simpson moved the chains to the 15-yard-line.
Zarate got the call three straight times and made tough yardage—tough enough so he had to take a knee for a couple of plays on the sideline. With Zarate out and the ball at the four, Simpson tried three straight quarterback sneaks, but Richfield's line was stubborn. It set the stage for Zarate's game-winning plunge.
Keep in mind that Richfield had lost four consecutive games to Carey by a combined 199-6 score including last fall's 50-0 and 48-0 thrashings. But the Tigers made a major step Friday night. Kirkland said, "We may see Richfield down the line (in the playoffs)."
The coach added, "We don't have a lot of seniors so our juniors have really needed to come of age quickly. The last two games have been good for us."
Carey returns to Derrick Parke Memorial Field for Friday's 7 p.m. Sawtooth Conference game against the Rockland Bulldogs (1-1, 1-0). Playing twice at home, Rockland has lost 40-14 to Hansen and has beaten Camas County 31-18.
The Panthers have won 16 of their last 17 games against Rockland including 50-0 and 54-6 wins the past two years. Carey out-gained Rockland 480-151 at The Dog Pound in 2007.
Check the Express Web site for a complete game summary.
