After three seasons, LRS Broncos finish with 38-1 gridiron record

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos football team finished its season on Saturday against the Okanogan Bulldogs, after a 38-game winning streak as one of the top four 2B teams in the state.

They fell to the Bulldogs 34-0 in their semifinals game in Moses Lake Saturday Evening.

Okanogan took an early lead in the contest, scoring with a seven-yard run after a Bulldog runningback broke free of the Bronco front line and put the Bulldogs in scoring range.

The Bulldogs scored two more times before the end of the first half and lead the Broncos 21-0 at halftime.

“It was a big difference them getting that third score, going into halftime down 21 instead of 14, not only in that kind of weather it is much tougher to come back from 21 points than it is 14, it’s demoralizing going into halftime having just given up a score,” Head Coach Greg Whitmore said.

The Bronco defense rallied in the third quarter and prevented the Bulldogs from putting together any significant scoring efforts. However, despite several large offensive gains, the Broncos failed to convert as well, and trailed the Bulldogs 21-0 into the fourth quarter.

“We challenged them at halftime and said, ‘Hey it’s easy if you get down big sometimes the easy thing is to give up’ games like that are also a test of you character and tell you what kind of heart you have,” Whitmore said. “We made sure they remembered that if you’re going to wear the red and black and be a Bronco you don’t ever give up.”

The Okanogan offense struck again early in the fourth with a 39-yard run and then later in the quarter on an 8-yard pass to secure the final score of 34-0.

“I’m disappointed in how the game went, we obviously lost to a team that was better than us, but we just made way too many mistakes to even keep it close,” Whitmore continued.

The Broncos attempted 15 passes during the game and completed eight for a total of 128 passing yards during the game. The wind was a major factor in play during the game.

“The wind was such a factor you needed to be able to score when you had the wind at your back, when the wind’s in you face, that heavy of wind, it feels like you’re playing uphill. And vice-versa you’re playing downhill when the wind’s at your back,” Whitmore said.

“And obviously the two different types of teams that we are, they’re a running team and we had to be able to mix it up and throw and run and the weather conditions obviously were more conducive to just running.”

The Broncos attempted to gain yardage by rushing 28 times, compared to the Okanogan’s 46 rushing attempts in the night.

“In the end, we just couldn’t sustain drives and put a whole drive together and finish,” Whitmore said.

On defense the Broncos smothered most of the rushing attempts by the Bulldogs and prevented two of four passes from connecting with receivers. Okanogan’s runners would break free for large gains against the Bronco’s, who did a lot of blitzing to prevent Okanogan’s running offense.

“The way we had to play, it was kind of a high risk, high reward type defense where we’re blitzing a lot. The good news is you probably have every gap covered the bad news is if he slips by one tackle he’s gone,” Whitmore added.

“I don’t think we’d seen anyone that ran that hard and that fast and broke tackles. As much as you tell your kids and you see it on film, unless you play against that game in game out or practice against it, you don’t know until you get in that game what it’s like.”

The Broncos finish their season 12-1 after three consecutive appearances in the state tournament and a 38-game winning streak that spanned back-to-back state championship titles.

“These seniors, they’re 47-3, so they’ve played 50 games and that’s getting five seasons in four years, basically, and not tasting defeat very much,” Whitmore said.

“That’s what I tried to tell everyone, don’t look at your last game, look at your entire body of work and your career and that’s what you need to be proud of.”

He is proud of how the boys played hard and “found ways to win” sometimes against opponents that may have been better on paper.

“We were pretty new at all different positions, we had some returners coming back but they were playing a little bit different position,” Whitmore said.

“I thought we’d be in every game and have a chance to win every game, whether I’d bet on that we were going to win every game I don’t know, the kids just played hard all year long and beat some teams that maybe we shouldn’t have beaten and in the end lost to a team we should have lost to.”

In addition to the successful season, Whitmore said this year was a fun year to coach.

“We had to coach a lot more this year, to tell you the truth, you think about how good you do when you win state championships,” Whitmore said. “But a lot of times it’s these years that you work your hardest, you have to do the most preparation to try to beat teams when you’re not quite as talented.”

Another part of what made coaching fun this year was the effort put forth by the team.

“The kids coming together and in the end sometimes just finding ways to win, believing in themselves and finding ways to win when we probably didn’t have any business winning,” Whitmore said.

“That’s what was fun and rewarding. And it helps send a good message about life, just never give up, keep fighting and clawing and good things will happen.”

With football done for the year the students move on to participate in their winter sports, but coach Whitmore prepares for the next year on the gridiron.

With a majority of the offensive and defensive line returning next year Whitmore anticipates another good season for the Broncos in 2015.

“Some of these kids, these juniors on down they hadn’t lost a ball game, they don’t know what it’s like to lose, but I think they know it doesn’t feel good so hopefully that will motivate us in the off-season,” Whitmore said.

“We’ll have a good team, it just depends on how hard they work whether we’re a great team.”

Whitmore explained Okanogan would have a lot of returning players next year and is hoping the Broncos might get another chance to play against them in the state tournament next year.

He also will be cheering for Okanogan at the championship game.

“It’s always nice to say the team that beat you and knocked you out of the playoffs went on to win the state championship, so I’m rooting for them

The Broncos will say good-bye to their seniors and celebrate their success this season at their football banquet on Monday, Dec. 22, at 6 p.m. at the Ritzville Grade School.