The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WHITE SWAN – The Dayton-Waitsburg football team overcame penalties, turnovers and a season-ending injury to its starting running back, and nearly secured its first victory of the season on the road Friday against White Swan. DW ultimately came up short, falling 30-29 to the Cougars.

With starting running back Chris Philbrook out for the season with a broken leg, suffered in DW's game against Lyle/Wishram on Sept. 29, coach Troy Larsen made some changes to his starting offensive backfield. Brayden Miller, who had started at quarterback all season, was moved to a slot receiver position. Freshman quarterback Shawn Evans got his first start of the season. Junior Helm got the start at running back.

Evans struggled in the first half, and DW fell behind 16-0 going into halftime. But Evans found his touch in the third quarter, as he connected twice with receiver Chris Andrews, for touchdowns of 46 and 42 yards. He then hit Hayden Wooldridge on a screen pass, and Wooldridge ran the ball in from 48 yards out to give DW a 21-16 lead going into the fourth quarter.

After White Swan scored twice early in the fourth, DW came back to make it a one-point game. Evans hit Miller on a 25-yarder, for his fourth TD pass of the game. Miller's successful two-point conversion cut the lead to one, but it wasn't quite enough.

"We fought hard and marched down the field to find Brayden Miller in the end zone to get the game to 29-30," Larsen said. "But White Swan was able to eat up the last three minutes to take the win."

For the game, Evans was seven out of 20 passing, for four touchdowns and two interceptions. Helm carried the ball 13 times for 51 yards. He was also successful on all three of his extra point kick attempts.

Andrews caught three passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns. Miller caught three for 95 yards and one TD.

On defense, Cade Branson led his team with 16 tackles. Carson Allessio and Jack Willis each had 12.

"I am really impressed with our team for fighting back after a poor performance in the first half and running the offense with confidence in the second half," said Larsen. "We are very thin, and the DW players showed a lot of heart playing both ways and competing to the end."

DW hosts Kittitas in Waitsburg Friday night in continued Eastern Washington Athletic Conference play.

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WS  8-8-0-14 - 30

DW 0-0-21-8 - 29

WS – Cordova 25 pass from Caballos (Walker Run).

WS – Walker 15 run (Walker Run).

DW – Andrews 46 pass from Evans (Helm Kick).

DW – Andrews 42 pass from Evans (Helm Kick).

DW – Wooldridge 48 pass from Evans (Helm Kick).

WS – Walker 10 Run (Run failed).

WS – Walker 6 run (Walker Run).

DW – Miller 25 pass from Evans (Miller Run).

WS -  DW

 Rushes/Yards 50-348, 16-78

Passing Yards 150, 231

Passing (Att-Compl-Int) 18-10-1,  20-7-2

Penalties 6-30, 18-165

Punts 2-15, 3-36

Fumbles-Lost 2-1, 0-0

 Individuals Statistics:

 Rushing - WS: Walker 32-225, Watson 8-42, Cordova 10-18; DW: Helm 13-51, Miller 2-30, LaRue 1-(-3).

 Passing - WS: Caballos 10-18-1, 150 yards; DW: Evans 7-20-2, 231 yards, 4 TD's.

 Receiving - WS: Sampson 2-40, Cordova 3-30, Leavitt 1-20, Walker 2-50, Shavehead 1-10; DW: Miller 3-95-1 TD, Andrews 3-88-2 TD's, Wooldridge 1-48-1 TD.

Tackles - Branson 16, Alessio 12, Willis, 12, Johnson 9, Miller 8, Andrews 6, Wooldridge 4, Lamere 4, LaRue 3, Evans 3, Helm 3, Boudreaux 3, Williams 1, Seney 1. Sack - Miller