Raiders lose close championship game

The Lake Roosevelt Raiders lost by two points at home to the Tonasket Tigers on Friday in what was dubbed the "League Championship" game.

Prevailing 16-14, the Tonasket Tigers, have the best win-loss record in the Central Washington 2B league at 8-0 for league play, 8-1 overall.

The Raiders' loss makes them the number-two seed in the CWB-2B League at 6-2. They will face the number-five seed from the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference, the DeSales Irish from Walla Walla, on Friday in Coulee Dam.

The championship game was well matched. Both teams' defenses kept the game at a comparatively low score, contrasted with LR's 66-0 victory the previous week against Bridgeport.

Down 7-0 in the second quarter, Raider quarterback Steven Flowers rushed for a touchdown and a two-point conversion to end the first half with an 8-7 lead.

In the second half, on a Tonasket drive, the Raiders held the Tigers to a three and out, but as the Tigers punted, a roughing-the-kicker penalty was called against LR, which allowed the Tigers to keep the ball and drive to a touchdown.

"I don't agree with the roughing the punter penalty," said Raider Head Coach Loren Endsley. "You can't really expect a defensive player that is going completely forward to stop on a dime like that. He barely ran into him. At the end of the day, we can't let refs decide the game. We need to come out prepared to play so well that they don't have that opportunity."

With the Raiders down 13-8 in the fourth quarter, Flowers again led his team on a drive that ended with him rushing for another touchdown, but the two-point conversion wasn't successful, making the score 14-13 LR. A 15-yard field goal from the Tigers late in the fourth quarter gave them back the lead at 16-14. A final LR drive failed to lead to points, and the game was over.

The Raiders move on to postseason this Friday, hosting DeSales on the Raider homefield in Coulee Dam starting at 7 p.m. The winner will move onto the state playoffs.

Tonasket vs Lake Roosevelt

Scoring Summary

Tonasket 7 0 6 3_16

Lake Roosevelt 0 8 0 6_14

First Quarter

Ton_35 pass, PAT Good

Second Quarter

LR_Flowers 10 Run, 2 pt. conv. good

Third Quarter

Ton_43 Pass

Fourth Quarter

LR_Flowers 3 Run

Ton_ 15 FG

LR INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

PASSING_Flowers 9 for 21, 102

RUSHING_Flowers 19-86, 2 TD; Hall 11-30; Nichols 8-35

RECEIVING_Kiser 4-65; Bird 1-10; McCragie 2-17; Nichols 1-5; Picard 1-4

DEFENSE_Harris 1 Tackle, 2 TFL,

2 Sacks, 1 FR; Flowers 8 Tackles,

2 TFL, 1 FF, 1 FR; Nichols 3 Tackles; Hall 4 Tackles; Lindsey 1 TFL; PIcard 2 Tackles; Renford 1 Tackle, 2 TFL

2 FF; Morin 2 Tackles; Atchinson-Garcia 3 Tackles, 1 TFL, 1 Sack; McCragie 2 Tackles; Michel 1 Tackle; Horn

1 Tackle; Clark 1 Tackle; Kiser

2 Tackles; Bird 1 Tackle