EPHRATA — Anyone who scouted Touchet during its first 10 games received an incomplete assessment of the club.
One Northeast B-8 football coach told the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin that the Indians didn't like to pass.
That was a valid statement until Saturday, when third-ranked Touchet manhandled Inchelium 63-24 in the WIAA/U.S. Bank State B-8 Semifinal at Ephrata High.
Touchet junior quarterback Mike Adams completed 9 of 11 passes for 221 yards and four touchdowns.
Three of the air-delivered scores went to senior Derrick Bingham, who hadn't caught a pass all year.
Bingham, who lives in Walla Walla and commutes the 15 miles to Touchet to attend school, was ineligible to play until the Indians' final league game against Rosalia.
"We weren't a passing team all year, but having Derrick back helped," Adams said. "We haven't had those kind of hands in a while."
Bingham had TD receptions of 35, 58 and 39 yards against a Hornets defense that held Sprague-Harrington to a net 4 yards last week.
"I was surprised they could throw the deep ball on us," said Inchelium coach Ron Washington. Touchet (10-1) advances to Saturday's Kingbowl in Seattle against fourth-ranked Pateros (9-1). Touchet won the Kingbowl in 1979 and lost the big game the following year.
Inchelium (6-5), which had a four-game winning stream snapped, will return most of its roster. The main losses will be Ty Stensgar and quarterback Cody Desautel.
Desautel completed 21 of 39 passes for 334 yards. He threw a pair of TD passes and an interception.
Sunny skies and comfortable temperatures prevailed, much unlike the snowy conditions both teams faced in the quarterfinals.
Desautel made a gigantic mistake on the second play of the game, flinging a pitch out of reach of everyone but Touchet's Ricky Boualapha. Picking up the ball at the Hornets 28-yard line, Boualapha sprinted untouched for a TD that, combined with Ben Espinoza's PAT, put Touchet ahead for good.
Desautel made up for the gaffe on the next play, as junior Mike Finley ran behind the Touchet defense and caught a 63-yard TD pass. The two-point conversion try failed, however, so Inchelium never claimed the lead.
With Adams, Bingham, and AJ Trejo going to work, the Hornets were buried by halftime. Touchet scored the next 34 points.
After two TD passes to Bingham put Touchet ahead 19-6, Trejo ran for the first of his two TDs with 3:12 left in the first half.
Trejo's TD run was abetted by back-to-back Inchelium penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct and defensive holding. The Hornets amassed 117 yards in penalties to Touchet's 49.
With 33 seconds left in the half, the Indians stretched the lead to 35-6 on Adams' 4-yard pass to Jake Bussell. Screen passes of 22 and 27 yards to Boualapha preceded the TD.
"I've been saying all year that we're capable of throwing the ball," said Touchet coach Wayne Dickey.
Inchelium, desperate for quick scores, took to throwing in the drawn-out second half. Desautel threw for 196 yards in the second half, but didn't have a TD pass until the game's final play, when junior Clint Desautel dashed behind the secondary on a play from midfield.
Cody Desautel had to leave the game briefly in the fourth quarter because of an injury. Inchelium was deep in Indians territory because of a Cody Desautel fumble recovery. Backup JD Finley threw a 5-yard TD pass to Stensgar.
Touchet held Inchelium's top-runner, sophomore Casey Finley, to 52 yards. "I thought we just played straight up 'D',' Dickey said. "We didn't key on Finley."
"We were thinking Finley all the way," Adams disagreed.
S-R
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