By Mike Maltais
A strange Halloween-like thing happened to the Mountain Lions’ varsity football team on the Liberty Bell High School gridiron last Friday (Oct. 31).
The home team materialized on the field against visiting Oroville and proceeded to pounce on the Hornets like a horde of scoring demons, rushed for the game’s first touchdown with less than three minutes off the opening quarter clock … and then vanished as mysteriously as they appeared.
The Hornets hung around, however, and in the remaining 45 minutes of play rattled off eight consecutive touchdowns to treat their hosts to a 55-6 fright- night final.
It all started out strong enough for Liberty Bell on its first possession when senior quarterback Chip Jones connected with sophomore Derek Alumbaugh for a 50-plus yard pass play that set up Jones to score on a keeper. A two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful and Liberty Bell took an early 6-0 lead.
Oroville answered midway through the quarter when senior running back Dustin Nigg, a regular competitor at the Methow Valley Rodeo bull riding events, tied the game and the Hornets took the 7-6 lead on a successful extra point kick.
As it turned out, the lady who gazes into her crystal ball could have called the game then and there, but Nigg was just getting warmed up.
With less than three minutes left in the first, Nigg scored again and Oroville jumped out to a 14-6 lead that held to the end of the quarter.
Both teams traded possessions early in the second before Oroville scored its third TD on a 20-yard pass midway through the quarter for a 21-6 lead.
The Mountain Lions were unable to get any traction during their possession and were forced to punt. Nigg took the ball 40 yards on the next play for another TD, but a bad snap from center scuttled an extra point to make the score 27-6.
Liberty Bell then put together a string of good yardage gains including first downs on passes to Jacob McMillan and a keeper by Jones, but a fumble near midfield gave the Hornets the ball and, once again, the momentum. The Mountain Lions got the ball back when the Hornets fumbled but only had seconds on the clock before the buzzer signaled halftime.
The sharply attired Mountain Lions cheerleading squad comprised of Jessica Johnson, Lauren Fitzmaurice, Alison Ryan, Ashley Watson, Naomi Comstock, Natalie Treise, Lily White, Megan Dammann,
Mollie Hauser, Kandee and Kaydee Sims and captain
Kathryn Bosco gave it their best shot to reverse the tempo of the game with a spirited halftime performance while the LBHS Key Club collected over $300 for the Carlton Complex Fire Relief Fund from generous spectators — but there was no change to be found on the playing field.
Seconds into the second half, Nigg took the Liberty Bell kickoff and threaded the needle 85 yards for Oroville’s fifth TD and a 33-6 lead when the extra point kick went wide.
Liberty Bell found some fire with a hurry-up pass offense that found Derek Alumbaugh and Garrett Dornfeld for first downs, but the drive fizzled when the Hornets took over on downs on their own 35-yard line.
Oroville moved the ball to Liberty Bell’s 30-yard line. From there it was a short distance to another Hornet score and extra point at mid-quarter to put the lead to 41-6.
Liberty Bell put together another strong drive late in the third that had the Mountain Lions knocking on the door of Oroville’s end zone. But the Hornets held and, taking over on their own 5-yard line, marched up field and punched the clock again to lead 48-6 with less than two minutes remaining in the third.
Oroville had one final TD left in its bag of tricks and sprang it on the Mountain Lions early in the fourth quarter before cruising to a 55-6 final.
To their credit, the Mountain Lions never gave up the ghost and filled the night with inspired individual efforts including backfield tackles, fumble recoveries, heads-up pass defense, and some sound running and passing plays. But a win just wasn’t in a roll of the bones.
The Senior Night crowd said goodbye to four seniors who played their last game in a Mountain Lions football jersey: quarterback/defensive back Chip Jones; wide receiver/defensive back Garrett Dornfeld; and outside linebackers/defensive linebackers Dreton Acord and Isaac Cordes.
