By TEREN KOWATSCH
Whitman County Gazette 

Colfax beats Asotin on Homecoming

Bulldogs declaw Panthers for second season win

 

October 27, 2022

Teren Kowatsch | The Gazette

Mason Gilchrist runs through several Asotin defenders on his way to the endzone Oct. 21 in Colfax

COLFAX - Homecoming night ran in (student) royalty, dances and a win for the Colfax Bulldogs against the Asotin Panthers.

It was the second win of the season for the Bulldogs, whose first win came Sept. 23 against the Reardan Screaming Eagles.

"We needed this," Colfax Coach Mike Morgan said, "it's been too long. We needed this win. We needed to get the taste back in our mouths. And now (we can) keep this momentum going and see if we can't take two more wins away to end this season and finish on a good note."

Colfax (2-7, 2-6) have been victims of one particular theme this season – and that's not being able to put a whole game together. Over the course of the season there have been several games in which the Bulldogs either outscored the opposing team in a quarter, by halftime, or in three quarters, but haven't been able to string together the full four quarters to get the win.

That was not the case against Asotin.

After the two sides swapped interceptions in the first two possessions of the game, Colfax running back Tanner Senter took a handoff from backup quarterback Cody Inderrieden 37 yards for the touchdown with 8:22 left in the first quarter.

Both defenses held and neither team found the endzone for the rest of the first frame.

JD Peterson added the next score with the Bulldogs – taking a handoff 54 yards for the score, followed by a 2-point conversion pass from Inderrieden to 6'7 target JP Wigen (who will be away from the team next week at FFA competition) to take a 14-0 lead with 7:01 in the first half.

Asotin responded with its brother-to-brother connection as quarterback Cody Ells completed a touchdown pass to Gavin Ells to shorten the lead to 14-7 with 1:15 to go.

Colfax responded with two big plays to get the Bulldogs in a first-and-goal situation and Senter added his second touchdown of the day, taking a handoff from five yards out to go up 20-7 heading into halftime.

"We joked with our guys and said 'Why don't we pretend when we come out of the locker room that it's the third quarter,'" Morgan said. "'Why don't we pretend we were in (the locker room) at halftime,' because we're such a good third quarter team. And the kids came out and got after it. Give a lot of credit to a beat up and depleted Asotin team. That's still a very, very strong team and a very tough team. But I thought our offensive line and our defensive line maintained the balance for everything and did everything we needed them to do and allow our running game to get going... the defense did not break tonight."

Asotin came out in the third quarter and scored on a quarterback keeper from 17 yards out to shorten the Bulldogs lead to 20-13 with 9:41 left in the third quarter. Colfax wasn't able to score the rest of the third quarter, and the Panthers marched down the field to end the third and began the fourth with another brother-to-brother connection to tie the game at 20.

This was the closest the Bulldogs allowed the game to get, as two-time All-League running back Mason Gilchrist raddled off three straight scores, the first from 32 yards out, the second from one yard out and the third from 25 yards out for Colfax to go up 40-20 in what would end up being the final score.

Gilchrist finished the game with 17 rushes for 151 yards and three touchdowns, Peterson had eight rushes for 61 yards and a touchdown and Senter had nine rushes for 32 yards and two touchdowns.

Colton Kneale had two interceptions for the Bulldogs in the win.

Teren Kowatsch | The Gazette

Colfax will next play at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28 against Northwest Christian (Colbert) at Colfax.

 

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