Sprague-Harrington's Colin Floyd is a player who can do it all.
Inchelium, it seems, is a team that can do even more.
And now the Northeast B-8 football race is a virtual, well, Hornets' nest.
Inchelium's Jacolby Simpson and Chris Burch accounted for six touchdowns between them Friday afternoon as the fourth-ranked Hornets rudely drubbed previously unbeaten Sprague-Harrington 41-12 at Inchelium creating a three-way snarl in the loss column at the top of the league standings.
Now the likelihood of a round robin tiebreaker looms to determine playoff berths, if the third ranked Falcons (5-1 league, 6-1 overall) can get past their final game against Cusick next week. Inchelium (6-1, 6-1) and Odessa, the other first-place team, have concluded their Northeast B-8 schedules.
It's no secret that the only way to deal with the Falcons is to keep the ball away from Floyd — a run-throw-catch-return threat with 19 touchdowns to his credit this season.
Inchelium didn't succeed completely — Floyd breaking away on a 58-yard punt return and catching a 9-yard pass for Sprague-Harrington's only points.
But with a brutal ball-control attack, the Hornets stormed to a two-touchdown lead, kept their offense on the field for 29 of hte games' 48 minutes and amassed a whopping 542-183 yardage edge on the visitors.
"He had to play our best game," said Inchelium coach Duane Gatlin. "The offensive line — those five guys up front flat put it together. We just asked them to get us 3 or 4 yards every down, and usually they got us more than that."
Not that the Hornets don't have big-play capabilities of their own.
In what may have been the game's biggest momentum swing, Burch answered Floyd's long punt return — which had trimmed Inchelium's lead to 13-6 in the second quarter — by sprinting 66 yards for a touchdown on the next play from scrimmage.
It was also a crushing hit by Burch on defense that cost S-H the services of quarterback/end Aaron Henry for the entire second quarter. Henry was taken from the field by ambulance and checked out in the locker room, but returned to somewhat limited duty in the second half.
He was at quarterback for the third quarter drive that saw S-H again trim the Inchelium lead back to 20-12. But the Hornets put together scoring drives on their next three possessions, uncannily converting on five of six third-downs, usually on drag or screen passes to Burch, who had 87 yards in receptions to go with 132 yards rushing.
David Tonasket was Inchelium's workhorse with 175 yards on 26 carries, while Simpson completed 14 of 17 passes for 179 yards. Simpson was also one of two defensive backs who regularly shadowed Floyd, who was limited to three catches for 42 yards.
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