The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

PASCO – The Dayton-Waitsburg football team finally met their match here Saturday night, as they suffered a rout at the hands of a hot Liberty Spangle team. With the loss, the DW season ended in the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs.

DW finished their season with a 10-2 record. The team won the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference championship, going undefeated in conference play. DW also won their first two playoff games, against Tonasket and Tri-Cities Prep.

Not only did DW win the title in the conference's first year of existence, but it was the first year of the Dayton-Waitsburg combine. The success of the combine has led the Dayton and Waitsburg schools to explore working together in other sports. The schools have approved a baseball combine and wrestling co-op.

Saturday's game started off badly for DW. Liberty's opened the game with an on-side kick, which they recovered on the DW 35. On the next play, Liberty's star running back, Tyler Haas, loped in for a touchdown, which gave Liberty a lead which they never relinquished.

Trailing 14-0 late in the first quarter, DW got on the board on a Travis Crockett 77-yard run. It would be the first of three Crockett TDs in the game.

Liberty scored three more times in the first half, while continuing to stifle the DW offense. DW trailed, 35-7 at the intermission.

Liberty built their lead to 48-7 by the end of the third quarter, totally dominating DW's defense.

In the fourth quarter, playing against Liberty's reserves, DW scored twice. Crockett got a TD on a 1-yard plunge. Then late in the game, Crockett was able to break free and score on a 75-yard run.

For the game, Crockett carried the ball 16 times for 274 yards and his three TDs. He also had three pass receptions for 27 yards. Ben Kleck also caught three passes for 33 yards.

Quarterback Jacob Dunn completed eight of 20 pass attempts for 74 yards.

DW was a senior-heavy team this year, and 16 of its players played their final game Saturday They are:

Joe Adams

Tanner Bren

Tyler Brooks

Spencer Conwell

Travis Crockett

Jacob Dunn

Jordan French

Tyler Hoffman

Nic Kitselman

Ben Kleck

Dylan Knowles

Cal Martin

Laramie Mathews

Devin Newman

Cameron Terry

Tryston Willis

Liberty 21 14 13 0-48

D-W 7 0 6 6-19

Lib - Haas 35 run (VanSlyke kick).

Lib - Burnham 3 run (VanSlyke kick).

D-W - Crockett 77 run (J. Adams kick).

Lib - Haas 11 run (VanSlyke kick).

Lib - Haas 21 run (VanSlyke kick).

Lib - Harrington 2 run (VanSlyke kick).

Lib - Haas 3 run (VanSlyke kick).

Lib - Burnham 27 pass from Rogers (kick failed).

D-W - Crockett 1 run (kick failed).

D-W - Crockett 75 run (pass failed).

Team Statistics:

Lib D-W

First Downs 14 10

Nick Page

DW receiver Tanner Bren (22) goes for a pass reception against a leaping Liberty defender.

Rushes-yards 49-340 26-283

Passing yards 68 74

Passes (att-comp-int) 2-2-0 20-8-0

Punts 3-41.3 2-41.5

Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-1

Penalties 2-15 4-25

Individual Statistics

RUSHING - Lib: Haas 30-274-4, Burnham 11-44-1, Harrington 2-9-1, King 4-15, Team 2-(-2); D-W: Kleck 3-3, Dunn 1-(-1), Kitselman 1-2, Crockett 16-274-2, Martin 4-13, Team 1-(-8)

PASSING - Lib: Rogers 2-2-0, 68 yards, 1 TD; D-W: Dunn 8-20-0, 74 yards, 0 TDs

RECEIVING: Lib: Haas 1-25, Burnham 1-27-1; D-W: Martin 1-10, Crockett 3-27, Bren 1-4, Kleck 3-33