Colfax comeback nails 21-14 win at Freeman

Colfax Bulldogs clicked for two scores in the third quarter at Freeman Friday night to erase the Scotties' first half lead in the way to a 21-14 win over the A division hosts.

"We hung tough for the first half, and came out and showed a lot of improvement in the second half," Coach Mike Morgan noted.

He said the Bulldogs at halftime adjusted their offense to spread out the Freeman defense and that opened up the field for the Bulldogs' offense to get in gear.

Down 6-14 at the half, Colfax tied the game at 3:57 in the third quarter when QB Layne Gingerich hit Nick Klaveano on a shot which went 20 yards for a score.

Sophomore Jacob Brown, who averaged 12.4 yards a carry against the Scotties, ran in a two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14.

Freeman fumbled the ball in their next possession, and Brown ripped a run for a first down on a third-and-13 play during the next series to keep Colfax in possesion of the ball. He later booked 20-yard scoring run with 14 seconds left in the quarter to put Colfax in the lead at 21-14.

That turned out to be the end of the scoring.

At the start of the game, Brown rolled out a 66-yard run with six minutes left on the clock in the first quarter to put Colfax in a 6-0 lead.

Freeman, led by junior QB Jace Pelan, then scored twice to post their halftime lead. Pelan passed to Kaleb Ohler for the first Scottie score at the end of the first quarter, and he ran for a 23-yard TD in the second quarter. Taylor Wells kicked both extra points to put Freeman on top 14-6 the break.

Pelan finished with 9 completions for 20 passes, but he missed a lot of shots by throwing over his receivers.

Coach Morgan noted Colfax middle linebacker Augie Allenbach did a lot to take Pelan "out of his element" as the game went along.

Allenbach was credited wih 10 tackles, 7 of them unassisted.,

The loss was the second for the Scotties on the new season.

Colfax now stands at 1-1 on the season with the Davenport slated for the home opener Friday.

The Gorillas will come to town after graduating 14 seniors off the team which rolled to the state quarter-finals last year before they were stopped by Asotin.

The Gorillas were crunched by LRS in their first game this year and lost to neighboring Reardan 58-14 last week.

Coach Morgan noted the Gorillas still have the ability to move the ball on offense, but the young G club has had trouble making stops on defense.

The aim for Colfax will be to slow the Gorillas down while keeping the Bulldogs' offense rolling like it did last Friday in the second half at Freeman.

The Davenport game will be a non-leaguer because the Gorillas are slotted on the north side of the now-divided NE league.

Friday's game will be the first of three straight home games at Schmuck Park.

Colfax team statistics: 256 yards on 52 plays, 7-156 passing for 67 yartds, 36 for 189 yards rushing; 5 penalites for 35 yards, 1-1 turnovers, 13 first downs, 28:24 time of possession.

Freeman team statistics: 205 yards on 46 plays, 9-20 passing for 123 yards, 26 for 82 yards rushing, 6 penalties for 50 yards, 4 fumble with with 3 lost, 10 first downs, 19:22 time of possession.