MABTON–Dayton-Waitsburg Valley Football is gearing up for Friday’s league-counting rematch with Liberty Christian following a disappointing 36-8 loss to the Mabton Vikings last Saturday.

DW is 0-2 in Eastern Washington Athletic Conference standings and is 0-4 overall. Tri-Cities Prep and Columbia are atop the EWAC B-11, White Swan is 2-0 and DW, Liberty Christian and Kittitas-Thorpe are all winless.

Valley’s previous meeting with the Patriots on September 27 was a hard-fought 25-0 loss that gave Head Coach Troy Larsen and his staff hope that the breakdowns that led to the loss were fixable with practice and experience.

“This is a big game for us,” said Coach Larsen. “We can play with Liberty.”

Last week, Larsen said, the goal was to win the next three games. Now the team is shooting to win the upcoming game with Liberty Christian and the Homecoming game against Kittitas.

“Liberty Christian and Kittitas are beatable teams,” he said. “Then we’ve got to steal one from TriCities Prep or Columbia.”

Columbia and TriCities Prep are both undefeated in EWAC standings at 3-0 and they play this Friday, the winner taking the top spot.

Dayton-Waitsburg struggled with taking care of the ball against Mabton. There were five turnovers in the first half and seven in the game—four through interceptions and three lost fumbles.

“Oh and five is not a pretty place to be,” Larsen commented.

In the latter part of the third quarter, Larsen sent freshman quarterback Monte Pettichord in the game. Pettichord engineered an 80-yard drive that resulted in a fourth-quarter touchdown.

“Pettichord is an athletic kid,” Larsen said. “He runs the scout team really well, he ran this offense in junior high, and he’s been handing off to Hudson Reser since junior high, so they know each other well.”

“It was a nice mix of the I formation, then we’d switch to a spread, then back to the I, depending on what the defense was doing,” Larsen said.

The offense was on the ten-yard line and the defense bunched inside, so the play called for a spread. Pettichord hit Dylan Bledsoe, a 5-8, 130-lb sophomore receiver, on a crossing pattern in the end zone. He then threw to Colton VanBlaricom for the two-point conversion.

“During the game, we did really good things, but you can’t win a ball game with seven turnovers,” Larsen said. “We marched all over the field. We made the most first downs we’ve ever made—nine—but it was frustrating. We couldn’t keep a drive going.”

In addition to the seven turnovers, Valley was flagged with 11 penalties.

Center and middle linebacker Seamus House, 6-0, 180 lbs., was back in the game following an injury the week before, but Larsen said his play was limited to defense.

Senior Tayven Seney, a 6-1, 240-lb. lineman, was shifted to center.

“We’ve got a pretty mature line,” Larsen pointed out. “They’re job now is to protect our freshman quarterback and runningback.”

DW 0 0 0 8-8

Mab 7 8 7 14-36

Scoring DW: 10 yd pass from Pettichord to Bledsoe, 2 pt conversion Pettichord to VanBlaricom.

First Downs DW 9

Penalties DW 11 - 80

Rushing DW: 30-77 yards

Passing DW: 9-18 -107 yards

Fumbles/lost DW: 5/3

Punts DW: 3-40 yards average

Individuals DW: 

Rushing: Reser 14-52, Petticord 3-20, Vanblaricom 2-10, Watson-Solis 3-6, Puckett 2-0, Evans 6-(-11).

Receiving: VanBlaricom 4-30, Bledsoe 2-22-1 TD, Finney 1-25, Pettichord 1- 30.

Passing: Pettichord 5-6-49 yds, 1 TD; Evans 4-12-58 yds, 3 INT’s.