To the Victors Goes the Gold Ball...

I’ve wanted to write about the Bronco football team for a few weeks now, but like all true sports fans, I was afraid that I might bring bad luck to these guys. Superstitious? Well maybe a little. But I didn’t want to see a good thing come to an end and wonder if bragging a bit might cut short a storybook season.

Since our young heroes of the Bronco gridiron have brought home a first place trophy, I can finally say what I feel about this group of young men.

Anytime a team can go 13-0, it certainly is a special season. I can honestly say that the Broncos had the most difficult road to the state championship than any of the 16 teams. After winning the Bi-County/NE 2B championship, the Broncos would basically follow that up by winning the SE 2B championship.

The Broncos played five of the six teams from our neighboring league taking out the Asotin Panthers, TOR Nighthawks, DeSale’s Irish and the defending state champion, Waitsburg-Prescott Cardinals, in consecutive weeks. The last three teams had beaten each other and had only one loss until they met the Broncos. By the way, LRS beat Tri-Cities Prep in week three of the season.

With the exception of the Asotin game, a lot of people thought LRS would struggle against the SE teams. Now the Broncos did bend a few times, but they made the big play when it counted and therefore marched on again and again. Some say that you need to beat the champion to be the champion. So when the clock went to .00 at Lampson Field on November 24, it was time to set their sights for the number one rated team in the state.

When it came time to play the Morton-White Pass (MWP) Timberwolves the “real experts” were convinced that LRS would have no chance against the big T-Wolves. But since so many fans from eastern Washington showed up, they thought it would be best that the game should still be played (hint of sarcasm here). On http://BSports.org, there were predictions on the outcome of the championship games. The computer predicted that MWP would shut out the Broncos 21-0. At least the computer was correct in choosing 21 as the winning team’s score.

Getting to know the Broncos up close and personal, it is easy to see that size isn’t the deciding factor in any game, and really shouldn’t be. Computers can put scores and statistics in the database and it will spew out numbers. The only problem that I see in this scenario, is that a computer can’t measure the heart in this team.

I will tell you this, MWP was the most physical and the toughest opponent that the Broncos faced this year, and since they lost in the final last year, they had a great deal of motivation to prove that they were the best of the 2B teams this year.

After the first drive of the game, I’m sure the T-Wolves believed they were going to score in the 40-point neighborhood. But all afternoon, they had to wonder how the boys in red could keep coming back and moving the chains on big fourth down plays.

The back breaker was a 24-yard gain on fourth and 19, with about three minutes left. The Dylan Hartz pass to Conner O’Neill was huge, followed by a Hartz keeper that gained 14 yards to the four.

Then O’Neill took the pitch to the right side goal line, and the Broncos again had the lead, this time for good.

But like any great game, it’s not over until the clock runs dry. MWP had good field position with less than two minutes left but they were forced to pass, and Hartz made a spectacular one-handed interception.

The Broncos could not quite run out the clock, and on fourth down, Cort Ruzicka’s punt was blocked and MWP had one more chance to spoil the Broncos’ trip home. With four seconds left, Tyler Greenwalt slipped inside of the left tackle’s block and got his hand on the QB’s arm and the pass fell incomplete about five yards away. Game, set, match, to the 2012 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos.

There were so many kids who left it all on the field last Friday, and the fans from the three communities were most appreciative. After the game ended, I was told that cheering could be heard in downtown Ritzville from the folks who stayed in town. That’s cool!

In 1973, the Sprague Vikings beat Clallam Bay in the very first B-8 championship game. In 1980, the Ritzville Broncos dropped North Beach for the B-11 gold ball. In 2004, Mike Lynch’s final team, the Lind-Ritzville Broncos came back to beat DeSale’s 25-21. And of course Lind-Ritzville/Sprague will be engraved in the spot reserved for 2012.

Each championship team has its great story and this one was very special. This championship is the first for LRS and Greg Whitmore as the head coach. Great job, and congratulations this year goes out to Coach Whitmore and his assistants: Aldrich, Hilzer, McGregor and Lynch.

It is said that to the victors go the spoils, but this year it will include the gold ball!