Liberty Bell junior safety Luke Sawyer broke up a pass defending Omak’s Myron John Jr.
It was a second consecutive white knuckler at Mountain Lion Stadium last Friday night as the Omak Pioneers outlasted the Liberty Bell High School Mountain Lions, 23-22, in an interleague clash between the Caribou Trail and Central Washington 2B leagues.
It was a game of ebbs and flows that went down to the last few seconds, when the Mountain Lions’ one last gasp fell short.
Before all of that, the Pioneers went to the lead early, on their second possession coming off a Liberty Bell turnover. A promising incursion into Pioneer territory was cut short when quarterback Greyden Paz was stripped of the ball.
Omak marched the ball smartly down the field. Pioneer quarterback Cooper Wells found Logan Cate for a 12-yard touchdown as Omak took a 7-0 lead with 3:45 on the first quarter clock.
The Mountain Lions responded, as quarterback Paz found cousin Yolo Paz open in the right corner of the end zone from 25 yards out. Greyden Paz scrambled for the two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead with :50.3 left in the opening period.
Wells hit Eli Tapia on a 60-yard bomb followed by a two-point conversion to put the Pioneers back on top, 15-8, only 12 seconds into the second quarter. The Mountain Lions responded, helped by several major penalties flagged on the Omak defense. Paz hit Logan Hughes for a 20-yard touchdown, and the two-point conversion put the Mountain Lions back to the lead at 16-15, which is where the first half ended.
Greyden again found Yolo Paz alone on his way to the end zone and fired a strike for a 22-15 lead with 3:15 remaining in the third quarter. It wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter, after a prolonged drive that started late in the third, when Omak responded to the Liberty Bell score.
Myron John Jr. took a handoff from quarterback Cooper Wells and cut his way into the end zone on fourth and goal from the 3-yard line with 9:18 on the game clock. On the two-point try, Wells called his own number and slipped into the end zone to give Omak a 23-22 advantage.
Frantic fourth quarter
Then it was hang-on time for the Pioneers, who survived one Mountain Lion advance into Omak territory by recovering a fumble on the Omak 25-yard line with just over six minutes left in the game.
The Mountain Lions got the ball back in great field position, but couldn’t convert on a fourth-down play with 3:51 to go.
Liberty Bell made a defensive stand at the opposite end of the field that forced the Pioneers into a punting situation with 1:56. The kick put the Mountain Lions 79 yards from paydirt at their own 21-yard line. With 1:48 on the clock, Liberty Bell had no time outs.
A Paz pass was deflected but took a fortuitous route into the hands of Logan Hughes. There was a little scuffle as Hughes tried to get up, flags flew and a personal foul was pinned on Omak. Add 15 more yards and the Mountain Lions were in business at the 49-yard line with 1:42 left.
Paz went on a 16-yard scramble to the Omak 35-yard line for another Mountain Lion first down, then found Kegan Mitchell for a 7-yard gain to the Pioneer 28. That was followed by a quick throw to Grady Thrasher, who made a diving catch at the 15-yard line with :27.6 on the clock.
Paz lost 5 yards on a roll-out, leaving less than 20 seconds to go at the 20-yard line. With 5 seconds on the clock, Paz let fly to the left corner of the end zone where cousin Yolo awaited. An Omak defender got to him first and committed pass interference, putting Liberty Bell at the 10-yard line.
There were three-tenths of a second left on the clock. Paz dropped back and, under pressure, rushed a throw toward Thrasher standing at the goal line. The pass was low, and Thrasher went down to his knees but was not able to dig out the ball as time expired.
Liberty Bell head coach Jeff Lidey was generally pleased with his charges. “Omak’s a really good team and well-coached,” he said. “We just want to get better each week and we’re following that plan.”
Liberty Bell, with a limited league schedule this season because three teams are now playing 1B eight-man football, needs only to win its crossover game with the southern portion of the district to qualify for the state tournament.
“These games are learning opportunities for us to get us ready for the late season,” Lidey said. “The guys are upset that they couldn’t pull it out tonight, but we did what we needed to do and we’ll keep building.”
“I told them on the second-to-last drive on the fourth-down play that they couldn’t hang their heads,” Lidey continued. “Play defense, get the stop and we’ll have time to make a run. They did exactly that. They never quit.”
Lidey thanked the home crowd for its support. “These boys love their community. They do a lot of service here and the kids really love it when people come out to watch them play,” he said.
Statistically, Greyden Paz had a good night, completing 16 of 34 passing attempts for 215 yards with three touchdowns. He also led the Mountain Lions with 108 rushing yards on 14 carries. Logan Hughes hauled in six passes for 92 yards. Grady Thrasher also had six receptions for 67 yards, Yolo Paz caught three for 55 yards and Kegan Mitchell had the late drive key catch for 7 yards.
Ryland Marcus led the defense with eight tackles, two of those for losses, and he also deflected one Omak pass attempt. Greyden Paz had five tackles, Cole Otte registered four tackles, with Jaydenn Covarrubias, Caleb Thomson and Kai Somerville-Borowski all netting three tackles each.
The Mountain Lions take this weekend off before heading to Leavenworth on Oct. 2 to face the Cascade Kodiaks. They have one more scheduled home date, Oct. 23 entertaining the Okanogan Bulldogs.
