Lyle-Klickitat-Wishram closed out an up and down 8-man football season last Saturday with a 26-22 non-league victory over Lopez Island in a game played in Thorp.
Henry Matai led the Cougars to their fourth victory in nine starts, rushing for two touchdowns and a career-high 194 yards and making 17 tackles.
Matai's second touchdown of the game, on a 40-yard run with 4:30 remaining, erased a 22-18 Lobos lead. Jeromie Mason passed to Nolan Smith for the 2-point conversion, for the Cougars' final margin of victory.
LKW finished with 339 yards of total offense: 309 on the ground, 33 via the airways.
"Overall we played a very good game," said first-year Cougars Coach Don Smith. "We didn't have a turnover problem and we cut down our penalties. With those two factors eliminated we showed we can play with playoff caliber teams."
The Cougars stopped the Lobos at LKW's 35-yard line on the game's opening drive and needed just two plays to get into the end zone. LKW's score came on a 57-yard run by Matai.
Lopez Island countered with a touchdown on its next possession but couldn't contain LKW's offense.
On their second drive, the Cougars ran Matai and fullback Seth Davis up the middle with success. That softened the the Lobos defense up for a Mason to Mike Murphy connection on a tight end crossing pattern for 33 yards to Lopez's 4-yard line.
Davis, who totaled 96 yards on the ground, took the ball in from there to give the Cougars a 12-6 advantage at the end of one quarter.
The Lobos had an answer, however, working the Cougars defense over with the run and the pass in the second quarter for a tying touchdown. They added the 2-point conversion and led 14-12 at halftime.
But, at the outset of the third quarter, LKW quickly regained the lead with a series that featured the running of Matai and Davis. With their fifth first down of the drive, the Cougars stood 3 yards away from a go-ahead score.
It came on a bootleg pass, with Mason rolling out to his right and finding Nolan Smith.
"That's been a very successful play for us this year," LKW's coach said of the play that netted Smith his first career touchdown and LKW an 18-14 lead.
Early in the fourth quarter the Cougars looked to mount a two-score lead. But a promising drive that reached the Lobos' 20-yard line stalled and the Cougars turned the ball over on downs.
Lopez took over and, mixing run with pass, marched 80 yards for its last touchdown and the 2-point conversion that gave it a 22-18 lead with just under 8 minutes remaining.
That was more than enough time left for the Cougars to put together a response and Matai made sure they would have good field position by returning the kickoff to LKW's 44.
And so, with 7:40 to play, the Cougars went to work, pounding the ball up the middle "as we had done the whole game," Smith said.
"I had intended to use as much of the clock as possible," he added. "Using Davis and Matai we were able to move the chains."
The 3-minute, 10-second drive ended with Matai going 40 yards for his second touchdown.
But Lopez Island (7-3) made LKW work for the victory, advancing the ball inside the Cougars' 30-yard line twice in the last 4:30 of play.
On their final possession, the Lobos had the ball first-and-10 at the LKW 28 with 1:10 on the clock but no timeouts. Put to the test, the Cougars held.
"They tried to run but we were able to stop them," Smith said.
For the Cougars, a solid showing against a team that's going to the Class 1B playoffs was a great way to end a 4-5 season.
"A couple of games could have gone our way but that's part of becoming a good football team," Smith said, adding, "We have a very good base for next year and look forward to what we can accomplish with some eight-man experience."
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