Morning Star Staff
The VSS Panthers ambushed the Valleyview Vikings of Kamloops 32-0 in Southern Interior High School Football League action Saturday at Kalamalka Secondary.
It was the senior AA season opener for Sean Smith’s crew, who scored on their first drive – a one-yard run by quarterback Caton Garvie – and then dominated both sides of the ball all day.
Garvie completed all four passes he attempted, finding Perry Klymchuk three times for 119 yards, including scores of 30 and 80 yards. Brett Lemiski caught a 60-yard TD pass.
On the ground, Ryan Messer carried 14 times for 90 yards, Colten Klein registered 32 yards on six touches and Brett Frankland scored on a five-yard rush. It was 20-0 Cats at the half.
“Both sides of the ball set the tone early in the game,” said Smith. “Our offense scored on the first possession and our defense shut them down on a fourth down gamble in their end.”
Isaiah Hennessey kicked a pair of converts with two getting blocked.
The VSS defence gave up just 122 rushing yards on 40 carries while allowing the Vikes just four first downs. Messer had one pick, while Josh Froom earned a fumble recovery.
Froom, Hennessey and Klein led the Panthers with four tackles apiece.
“This was a great team win,” added Smith. “We got contributions from a lot of players at key times. For our first league game, I was very happy with the result. However, we had some mistakes on special teams and got penalized way too many times. If we want to be successful next week at Fulton (Saturday, 10:30 a.m.) we have to clean those things up in practice this week.”
Meanwhile, Fulton fell 48-0 to the Omak Pioneers in their annual trek to Washington State.
Both the senior and junior teams took in the Saturday night NCAA Division 1 game at Roos Field in Cheney between the Eastern Washington Eagles and Montana State, won 36-21 by the Bobcats before 10,422 fans.
Montana State is 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Big Sky Conference, while Eastern Washington is 0-2 in the Conference and 0-4 overall.
Matt Parlee ran the ball five times for 20 yards in Friday night’s loss, while Kyle Richardson completed five of seven passes for 48 yards.
Clayton Mottus had two catches for 23 yards.
Lucas Hofer collected 10 tackles for the Maroons, while Sean Greene had four and Mike Ochoa and Matt Eso three apiece.
Ochoa and Wes Liefke each had one sack, while fumble recoveries were recorded by Devon Harris and Broden Romanovitch.
“It was good to renew our rivalry with Omak,” said Maroons’ head coach Mike Scheller.
“They are great hosts to us, and their program is awesome to visit. We have not played them since 2007, and the result was similar to the other six times we have played them in the past.
“Their ability, football sense, and conditioning is far superior to ours. They simply have a much greater football IQ. They race to the ball, and deliver some nasty shots once they get there. They block very well, tackle hard, and I was really impressed with their ability to sustain blocks downfield. They are a couple of leagues ahead of us.”
Scheller priased Richardson for giving “a gutty performance under a lot of pressure, and Hofer for “a great game at middle linebacker.”
Fulton hosted the Panthers in junior varsity action Tuesday afternoon at Grahame Park. Dave Tetrault is head coach of VSS.
