St. Maries puts up good fight before falling in 2A football play-in

| November 4, 2013 8:00 PM

MERIDIAN - The visiting St. Maries Lumberjacks nearly dug out of a 17-0 hole in the first quarter, but came up on the short end of a 23-13 loss to the Cole Valley Christian Chargers of Meridian on Saturday afternoon in a state 2A football play-in game at Meridian High.

Cole Valley (9-0) took the early lead six minutes into the game before the Lumberjacks rallied to cut the deficit to 17-13 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Logan Feasline with 3:25 remaining in the third quarter.

"We were so close, but really dug ourselves in a hole really quick," St. Maries coach Craig Tefft said. "But we battled back and gave ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter. But then we kind of ran out of gas, but were able to make that a game against the No. 3 team in the state. I thought we played a good ballgame."

St. Maries outgained Cole Valley Christian 319-315, including 286 yards rushing, but lost three fumbles in the game.

"We came in with the game plan to run the ball," Tefft said. "Today, our best defense was our offense. Once the kids kind of settled down, we kind of hogged the ball. But we kind of stubbed our toe with turnovers or we would have won that game."

Brad Macumber ran for 158 yards and a touchdown for St. Maries, which finishes 2-7.

St. Maries 7 0 6 0 - 13

Cole Valley Christian 17 0 0 6 - 23

First quarter

CVC - Tallen Eveland 25 pass from Mason Vanderhoff (Vanderhoff to Eveland pass), 10:05

CVC - Defense safety, 6:45

CVC - Jacob Booker 28 pass from Vanderhoff (Eveland kick), 6:00

SM - Brad Macumber 1 run (Isaac Walters kick), 2:28

Third quarter

SM - Logan Feasline 4 run (kick failed), 3:25

Fourth quarter

CVC - Wyatt Ruff 4 run (kick failed), 5:45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - SM, Brad Macumber 26-158, Logan Feasline 8-33, Isaac Walters 4-9, Chase Truscott 4-14, Doug Massender 19-70, Dillon Michael 1-2. CVC, Wyatt Ruff 4-42, Jacob Booker 11-31, Remington Kuehl 1-(-4), Mason Vanderhoff 3-(-18), Caleb Ritchie 1-(-6).

PASSING - SM, Feasline 4-13-1 33. CVC, Vanderhoff 19-30-0 270, Ritchie 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING - SM, Leighton Gertje 1-7, Macumber 1-2, Michael 1-15, Matt Smith 1-9. CVC, Booker 6-119, Tallen Eveland 8-103, Chase Renfrow 4-43, Ruff 1-5.