Naches Valley 21, Columbia High 3

The Bruins yielded touchdowns on the Rangers' first two drives of the first half and their first of the second half, and managed just a 30-yard field goal by Sebastian Alvarez in 60 minutes of action.

Moreover, Columbia (1-1) lost three players to injury. Senior Sean Kruse suffered a hyperextended elbow, junior Justin Collins injured a knee and sophomore Stephen Lundh sustained a mild concussion.

Kruse and Collins are listed as doubtful for this Friday's home opener against Montesano, while Lundh is out for the season.

"When I looked at our kids in the locker room after the game, they looked like they'd been through a war," Bruins Coach Scott Ross said. "But I thought we played with tremendous heart and competed the best we could against a team that was just bigger and better."

The Rangers (2-0) of the 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference proved that on their first two drives of the game.

They took the opening kickoff and marched down the field for their first touchdown, which came on an 8-yard run by Kyle Prescott.

They made it 14-0 minutes later with a quick-hitting long pass when quarterback Justin Weller connected with Chris Reese for a 59-yard score.

Columbia finally answered in the second quarter when Alvarez, an exchange student from Chile, split the uprights from 30 yards out for his first career field goal.

That came at the end of a Columbia High drive that stalled at Naches' 23-yard line.

For Columbia, it was a game similar to the season opener at Goldendale and like many games it played a year ago.

"We did a good job of moving the football between the 30-yard lines," Ross said. "But we weren't able to put together a solid drive like we did at Goldendale. And when we did get inside the 20, the combination of our mistakes and their defensive plays made it difficult for us to execute our offense."

Unofficially, the Bruins finished with 174 yards of total offense. The majority of those--116--came on the ground. Senior wingback Will Brasuell accounted for 60 and senior fullback Alex Riley added 56.

"Offensively, I think we played better," Ross said. "We weren't able to get into the end zone, but I thought we moved the ball more consistently against a better team (than Goldendale.)"

The Rangers, however, proved to be a harder team to stop than the Bruins' season-opening opponent, racking up 341 yards, including 227 rushing. Prescott tallied 162 of those on 17 carries, while Weller passed for 114.

Prescott increased Naches' lead to 21-3 early in the second half, scoring from 2 yards out on the Rangers' first drive of the third quarter and completing the night's scoring.

"There was a lot of back and forth after that," Ross said. "Our drives would stall out, then there's would stall out; we were wearing the middle of the field out between the 30s."

Senior Mitch Wheelhouse led the CHS defense with four solo tackles and two assists. Brasuell recovered a fumble and sophomore Mason Giovannoni made the first interception of his career.

"Defensively, we played pretty well considering we had to move so many bodies around and piece things together because of the injuries," Ross said. "We had to use some kids who hadn't played a lot, but they stepped right in and got the job done for us."