The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG—Dayton-Waitsburg Football played Mabton High School at Mabton on Saturday, March 13, with a 1 p.m kickoff.

“The weather was almost too nice with the sun and 62 degrees outside,” said head coach Troy Larsen. “We had a starter go down in the first half with heat exhaustion and our conditioning was tested with the rest of the team playing for the first time with any sort of heat.”

After a slow start, Dayton-Waitsburg adapted and started to play better. Monte Pettichord started out 3-16 with two interceptions before getting out and finishing the day at 13-30-2-5 touchdowns (TD) and 2 interceptions (INT).

DW’s three senior receivers started to find an open field, with Shawn Evans leading the charge, catching the first three TD’s, and ended the day with 6-107-3, while Mason Finney electrified the team by catching a short sprint out pass and taking it 80 yards for a TD.

Colton VanBlaricom had another solid game catching only first downs and a TD, going 3-57-1.

Hudson Reser kept Mabton honest by rushing 12-51, mixing runs on the inside and outside with Pettichord making some nice reads, and pulling the ball for 5-43 yards respectfully.

“Mabton has a good quarterback that loves to keep the ball and does a really good job scrambling around letting his receivers find some green grass to sit in,” said Larsen. “The DW defense lost two receivers for TD’s, but overall did a great job staying with the WR’s and had 2 interceptions and 7 pass break-ups.”

The DW defensive line and linebackers (LB) kept good containment and tallied three sacks, limiting any long scramble runs. Sophomore LB Benny Bryan had a breakout game with 12 tackles, while Colton VanBlaricom flew around from his safety position for 11 tackles. Mason Finney, Adam Puckett, and Theo Anderson continued to have solid defensive games with 10 tackles apiece.

“DW will host Riverview High School this Friday night at 7 pm and we are looking forward to a larger crowd with the new Phase 3 guidelines,” Larsen added. “Friday will also be the DW Homecoming game and Senior Night.”

Dayton-Waitsburg 32, Mabton 20.

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final

DW 6 6 13 7 32

Mabton 0 14 0 6 20