PHOTO BY MEGAN KANE
Three yards from a first down and six yards from a potential game-tying score, the Hermiston Bulldogs were stopped on fourth down with just seconds to go to fall to the Southridge Suns Friday night at Kennison Field.
The Suns scored early in the fourth quarter on a 21-yard touchdown scamper by running back Kadin Diaz to take the lead, 35-31. A late field goal wrapped up a 38-31 win for the Suns, who earned a bit of revenge following last year’s 42-13 Bulldog victory at Lampson Field in Kennewick.
Trailing by 7 with 2:22 left in the game, a pair of 19-yard plays gave Hermiston a first down at the Southridge 30. Several plays later, Hermiston had the ball at the Southridge 6 and faced fourth and 3, but Costa Rodriguez did not have an opening and was stopped to end the drive and Southridge ran out the clock.
The Bulldogs got off to a fast start by scoring on the third play of the game when quarterback Chase Knutz hit Ramon Contreras on a 34-yard touchdown pass.
The Suns tied it up at 7 when quarterback Jair Ealy-Thomas hit Clay Gonzales on a 70-yard strike. The Bulldogs hit on their own long play on their next drive. Facing a third-and-10, Knutz connected with Contreras on a 71-yard pass for their second scoring play of the game.
Southridge took advantage of a Bulldog interception early in the second quarter and proceeded to march 58 yards and take the lead with Masceo Ealy-Thomas scoring on an 8-yard run to tie the game at 14.
Hermiston, the 8th-ranked 5A team in the state, answered right back with a 72-yard drive that culminated with a 6-yard run by Rodriguez to give the Bulldogs a 21-14 lead.
The story of the game was the line of scrimmage. Hermiston was unable to stop the Southridge running game. Big plays also hurt the Bulldogs. After a field goal by Luis Medina gave Hermiston a 10-point lead, the Suns cut it to 24-21 on a 2-yard run by Masceo Ealy-Thomas, and took their first lead of the game on an 86-yard bomb from Jair Ealy-Thomas to Brenden Kelly midway through the third quarter to make it 28-24.
The Bulldogs regained the lead on an 11-play, 63-yard drive that was capped off by a 4-yard touchdown by Rodriguez late in the third quarter. Southridge then turned to their powerful ground game. Diaz, who broke tackles all night long, scored his 10th touchdown of the season on the 21-yard run that gave the Suns the lead they would not relinquish.
Southridge ran the ball 49 times on the night for 323 yards. Diaz had 166 of those yards on 31 carries. Masceo Ealy-Thomas tallied 142 yards rushing on 16 carries and a pair of scores. For Hermiston, Rodriguez carried the ball 17 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns.
The loss drops the Bulldogs to 4-3 on the season and Southridge improves to 4-2. The Bulldogs, 1-0 in the Columbia River Conference, will take on Hood River at Kennison Field next week.
