Prosser survives Othello threat

KENNEWICK — The ball, like the game, seemed to hang up there forever. Not just once, but twice. And each time, all eyes — and the Prosser Mustang’s hopes of continuing their hunt for a second straight Class 2A football title — lay on a 150-pound sophomore named Dominic Garza.

Less than 31/2 minutes remained in a Saturday quarterfinal in which Prosser had led for less than 10 minutes, would ultimately win 33-28 but now trailed CWAC archrival Othello by a point. Mustang quarterback Jordan Durbin had sent the ball sailing half the length of the Lampson Stadium field in the direction of Garza, who was … alarmingly alone.

“That’s the hardest throw to make — when a guy’s that wide open,” Durbin said. “If you throw a bad ball and it’s incomplete, it’s your fault.”

And the guy having to wait for the ball to arrive, hoping not to blow the solo catch for the go-ahead touchdown?

“Kind of scary,” Garza said. “The corner(back) ducked in on our second receiver, and so I had a wide-open lane. I just had to make a good catch.”

And to wait for the ball to arrive.

“That ball was up in the air forever,” Prosser coach Tom Moore said. “That ball would not come out of the sky.”

It did, of course. Garza hauled it in and trotted the few remaining steps in on what would be a 50-yard touchdown play, Durbin’s fifth scoring pass of the game (and the second to Garza), with 3:22 remaining. When the two-point conversion pass attempt was intercepted, the top-ranked Mustangs (12-0) had only their second lead of the game, 33-28.

But Othello (10-2) wasn’t done. The Huskies marched to Prosser’s 20-yard line with 30 seconds remaining, when quarterback Marc Garza launched a pass in the direction of Ryley Petersen. A 39-yard Garza-to-Petersen touchdown pass in the first period had given Othello the first of its four leads in a seesaw affair in which the Huskies usually had the upper hand.

This time, though, Garza was in perfect position — a step in front of Petersen on the receiver’s fade route, so when Garza’s pass sailed a little long, he simply timed his run to arrive at the same time as the ball.

“It was one-on-one coverage. I just knew I gotta play deep,” said Garza, who hauled in the victory-clinching interception — in the end zone, no less — with 20 seconds remaining. “I was just in shock,” he said.

Understandably. With Othello’s offensive line clearing avenues for talented tailback Lee Gomez, who racked up 234 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries, Prosser always seemed a step behind. Even when the Mustangs found its bearings in the second half and took a 27-21 lead into the final six minutes, Othello was there with the big play: a 51-yard punt return for a touchdown by Devon Lind and a 28-27 Husky lead with 5:05 left.

“I looked up on the clock and thought, OK, five minutes, that’s enough time for our offense to score,” said Durbin, who turned out to be right. It took the Mustangs barely 11/2 minutes, and Durbin found yet another receiver who was not Kirby Moore.

Although Moore hauled in seven passes for 108 yards and his state-record 30th of the season, he was so frequently double- and even triple-covered that Durbin had been able to find Dustin Crawford, Matt Young and Garza with scoring passes. And he found Garza again.

“This is the biggest test we’ve had,” Durbin said. “Our team needed this.”

And because Garza did his job when the ball came out of the sky — twice — the Mustangs got it.