The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash.-The Dayton-Waitsburg football team fell flat Friday night here, taking a loss to Medical Lake, 44-0, in a non-league game.

Sticking with their emphasis on running the ball, DW was able to get nothing going on offense and quickly fell behind, 21-0, in the first quarter. The team trailed 31-0 at the half.

"Dayton-Waitsburg came out flat against a hungry and aggressive Medical Lake football team," said Coach Troy Larsen. "We had four players serving partial game suspensions, and when you are already thin, it took a toll on us in the first half both physically and mentally.

"Offensively we started to move the ball both in the air and on the ground and just couldn't get it in the end zone stalling in the red zone five times on the night," Larsen added.

For the game, quarterback Brayden Miller completed five passes on 12 attempts, for 49 yards. He was intercepted once.

Running back Damien Johnson carried the ball 11 times for 60 yards. Chris Andrews had nine carries for 26 yards. Andrews also had two pass receptions for 26 yards.

"Brayden Miller continued at QB and made some smart throws and is continuing to get better with the read-option offense," Larsen said. "Defensively we got run over for the first time this year, with Medical Lake being more aggressive and physical."

Larsen added, "It was a good non-conference game to get our eyes opened and start demanding ourselves to play to the whistle on every play. We head into our homecoming week against Mabton, and we are going to keep working hard to eliminate the dumb penalties and play with confidence."

This week's homecoming game is Friday night in Dayton, starting at 7 p.m.

Dayton-Waitsburg 0 0 0 0 – 0

Medical Lake 21 10 6 7 – 44

ML – Stith 40 yd run (Pivonka run)

ML – Pivonka 32 yd run (Peterson kick)

ML – Mason 34 yd pass from Lyerla (kick failed)

ML – Peterson 18 yd Field Goal

ML – Stith 8 yd run (Peterson kick)

ML – Vercoe 12 yd pass from Lyerla (Peterson kick)

ML – Vinson 26 yd run (kick failed)

Dayton-Waitsburg Medical Lake

First Downs: 6, 14

Rushes – yards: 32-110, 38-351

Passing Yards: 49, 117

Passes (att-comp-int) 12-5-1, 8-6-117

Punts-yards; 6-31.5, 2-40

Fumbles-lost 2-0,2-0

Penalties-yards; 7-80, 11-97

Individual Statistics:

RUSHING – DW: Johnson 11-60, Andrews 9-26, 6-20, LaRue 6-4; ML Stith 8-98-2, Pivonka 7-107-1, Lyerla 10-87, Vinson 5-59-1.

PASSING– DW: Miller 5-12-49; ML: Lyerla 6-8-117-1

RECEIVING– DW: Evans 1-7, LaRue 1-20, Andrews 2-26, Johnson 1-4; ML: Mason 4-80-1, Vercoe 2-37