Wolves fall short of EvCo title

HIGH SCHOOLS: Undefeated Chehalis shuts out Black Hills, 14-0, to secure conference crown

GAIL WOOD; The Olympian | • Published October 31, 2009

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TUMWATER - Chehalis' defensive game plan was simple: Stop Cody Peterson.

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Stacking its defense to stop the explosive Black Hills running back, the Chehalis Bearcats shut out a Wolves offense that had been averaging 35.2 points a game to win, 14-0, on a rainy Friday night in a battle for the championship of the Class 2A Evergreen Conference.

“You can’t win if you can’t score,” Black Hills coach Jack Zilla said. “After the game, I told them (the Bearcats) they were the best team in the conference.”

With the win, the Bearcats captured the conference title and improved to 9-0. It’s Chehalis’ second league football championship overall and first since 1987.

“Our defense has been rock solid,” Chehalis coach Bob Wollan said. “We wanted to stop Cody Peterson.”

Chehalis won at Tumwater District Stadium for the second time this season, having already beaten Tumwater there. Black Hills, which had its six-game win streak snapped, dropped to 7-2 and will play Woodland on Friday in the first round of the playoffs.

Four plays into the fourth quarter, Chehalis quarterback Ben Ternan scored on a 1-yard sneak on a fourth-and-goal, giving Chehalis a 14-0 lead.

Chehalis, which was shut out in the first quarter for only the second time this season, took a 7-0 lead on Ternan’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Lininger early in the second quarter. Lininger got behind the Wolves’ defense, and Ternan threw a perfect strike, hitting the running back in full stride down the sideline.

“This is awesome,” Ternan said. “The key to our win was our defense. Our defense shut them down.”

It’s the second straight year that Chehalis has shut out Black Hills; the Bearcats won 28-0 last year.

The No. 1 offense in the Evergreen Conference couldn’t get on track Friday.

Peterson, held to 13 yards in the first quarter, finished with 103 yards on 22 carries. But Black Hills completed just 2 of 7 passes and couldn’t counter Chehalis’ run-stopping defense.

Zilla didn’t want the loss to detract from the team’s second-place finish and a trip to the playoffs.

“We have a lot of football left in us,” Zilla said. “It’s still our goal to play indoors.”

The state semifinals and finals are played in the Tacoma Dome.

In a gritty first half, Black Hills’ defense stopped two Chehalis scoring threats.

Garrett Baldwin intercepted Ternan’s overthrown pass at the Wolves’ 20 six plays into Chehalis’ opening drive.

Later in the first quarter, on a first-and-goal from the 1, Chehalis junior running back Brennan Casteel fumbled while attempting to leap over the pile. The ball bounced into the end zone, and Baldwin recovered to end another Chehalis drive.

“We let an opportunity slip away, and you worry that’s going to come back and haunt you,” Wollan said. “When we got that second touchdown, we felt a lot better.”

Trailing 7-0, Black Hills went to Peterson, who carried the ball seven straight times and moved the Wolves 43 yards to Chehalis’ 34. But later in the drive, on third-and-7 from the 14, the center snap in a shotgun formation sailed through quarterback Trent Alsin’s fingers, and the Wolves lost 13 yards, stopping the drive.

During that drive, Peterson had 13 carries for 70 yards, and the Wolves picked up five of their eight first downs for the game. But they couldn’t get into the end zone.

It was a defensively controlled first half as two teams that were averaging a combined 66.7 points were held to a total of seven points and a little more than 200 yards in combined offense.

Ternan, who had thrown for 1,651 yards coming into the game – an average of 206 per game – completed 4 of 8 passes for 85 yards and one touchdown during the first half. For the game, Ternan connected on 7 of 16 passes for 155 yards.

Ternan has thrown 17 touchdown passes this season.

Chehalis came into the game averaging 31.5 points and was giving up 10.4. Friday’s game was their second shutout of the year.

Gail Wood: 360-754-5443

gwood@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/sports/blog