Saturday, June 18, 2022

Nov. 26, 2000: Rematch for B-8 title — Inchelium Odessa pile up the points in B-8 semifinals


 

Two eastside rivals will go west to determine the Washington B-8 high school football championship.

Inchelium and Odessa, the best two teams in the Northeast B-8 League, will finish as the best two teams in the state. The Hornets and Tigers tied for the league title, but because Odessa defeated Inchelium 22-8 in the season's first week, the Tigers won the championship.

Both teams unleashed high-powered offenses in Saturday's semifinals at Albi Stadium, as No. 3 Inchelium knocked off top-ranked Neah Bay 54-34 and fourth ranked Odessa hammered Cusick 58-8.

Inchelium 54, Neah Bay 34

Inchelium (9-1) ran only eight offensive plays in the first period, but scored on three of them and also on a 91-yard interception return by Chris Burch. Burch also scored on a 28-yard pass from quarterback Jacolby Simpson, who ran for the Hornets' other two early TDs, from 1 and 58 yards.

"We knew we had to jump on them early," Hornet coach Duane Gatlin said. "We knew we'd better shut 'em down when we could, because weren't going to do it forever, not with their weapons on this surface."

Inchelium led 32-14 at halftime as Neah (10-1) finally found some offensive success on the passing of Sterling Brown. The Hornets were up 48-14 late in the third after David Tonasket's second touchdown run of the period, but Neah Bay made a game of it by scoring 20 unanswered points to close the margin to 14, 48-34.

With some 6 minutes left in the game, though, the Hornet got just what they needed, putting together a nine-play, 72-yard drive that concluded with Burch's 13-yard TD run for a 54-34 lead, leaving Neah Bay with a long way to go and only 1:53 to get there.

Tonasket rushed for 213 yards on 24 carries, while Neah Bay's Brown completed 14 of 27 passes for 191 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Neah's Chuck Halttunen rushed for 147 yards, including scoring runs of 54 and 49 yards.

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