The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

KAMIAH, Idaho - Senior T.J. Hofer made and saved the day for the Waitsburg-Prescott Car­dinals

in their 6-0 victory over the Kamiah Kubs Friday night.

In an intensely defen­sive game for both sides, Hofer scored the game's only touchdown during the third quarter and then made a game-winning interception during the Kubs' last drive of the fourth quarter that could have resulted in an equal­izer and extra-point vic­tory for the home team. "Anytime you can win a game 6-0 you have done a few things right, at least on defense," head coach Jeff Bartlow said. "And, that was the case last Fri­day." Though the Cardinals played poorly on offense, he said, the team still man­aged

324 yards of offense, more than the opposing team at 280. The field position was a huge part of the game, and WP's punter and punt returner, Dalton Estes, did his job and ended up being a huge part of the game, Bartlow said. "We had some huge plays that ended up not producing any points and that was frustrating for us," he said. The evening in Kamiah was warm and muggy at game time. Although a hot dry day in Idaho preceded the game, for some unex­plained

reason the field was unusually wet. Play­ers' cleats where eventu­ally laden with cut grass and uniforms became sopping.

Both teams experienced difficulty maintaining solid footing throughout the game. Several sacks of the Kamiah quarterback Dan Millward could be attributed to the sodden field. On two occasions, he planted his foot to pass only to findhimself on his knees and the referee's whistle stopping the play for big losses.

On several plays, the Cardinals' own quarter­back, Zach Bartlow, initi­ated his proven ability to make hard-running cuts only to find his own feet going skyward as he slid to a stop on his side. The inability for Bartlow to firmly plant his back foot when passing found sev­eral

Cardinal balls on the ground before ever mak­ing it to the receiver. Both teams played a "mentally" tough defense throughout the game, allowing yards but no scores. Kamiah showed incredible team speed. On three big breakaway plays by the WP team, each of which on their own would have been easy touch­downs in any other game, were stopped by the clos­ing ability of the Kamiah defenders. The Cardinals stopped Kamiah drives with a dif­ferent method. On four separate drives, bone-jarring hits by the WP team resulted in Kamiah fumbles with recoveries by the Cardinal defenders.

As happens in almost every opening game, some on-the-field confu­sion resulted in several plays where only 10 Car­dinal defenders were on the field. However, the outcome did not change, and Kamiah struggled to move the ball even against the fewer Cardinal defenders. Estes provided one of most pivotal plays of the game. As the punter, he scooped up a high snap over his head, eluded fivechasing defenders, circled around to his left, and in full running stride booted a 48-yard punt, pinning the Kubs back in to their own territory. Without this superb athletic feat, it would have been Ka­miah's ball inside the WP 10 yard line. The lone Cardinal touchdown was a beauti­ful, lofting, five-yard pass from Barlow into the right sideline of the end zone, and a leaping "over-the-shoulder" catch by Hofer, with a defender stride for stride on his hip. Senior lineman Matt Hamilton in his first year of high school football was a huge contributor on both the defensive and of­fensive line. "I really felt that on defense Zach Bartlow, Es­hom

Estes, Kris Cady and Morgan Robinson stepped up and really helped us get that shut out," Bart­low said. "On offense, Dustin Wooderchak and Tre Brannock stood out for their blocking and cre­ating things that way." But the coach said his team will have to get bet­ter on the offensive and defensive lines. "We really struggled there, and this is our big­gest concern and will be a concern until we play another game and are able to evaluate this again," he said. "I was proud of my guys, overall. We went 180 miles away and played a very good foot­ball

team and got a win. It was a huge win, too. We learned lots about our­selves and still got a win. That does not always hap­pen that way, so we feel both lucky and blessed."

WP vs MAKIAH

6 - 0

Rushing: Zach Bartlow 97 Kris Cady 76 Dalton Estes 4

Justin Armstrong 3

Passing: Zach Bartlow 9/18/0 150 yds

Kris Cady 0/1/0 0 yds

Receiving:

Dalton Estes 2-72

Kris Cady 3-43 Dustin Wooderchack 2-23

TJ Hofer 2-12-1