Newport winning streak snapped

SPOKANE VALLEY – The Newport Grizzlies football team was undefeated heading into their fourth game of the season against the Northwest Christian Crusaders Saturday, Sept. 28. Newport came out of the game with their first defeat of the year, a 4022 loss. The game was played at West Valley High School in Spokane Valley.

“We got outcoached and outplayed,” Newport coach Mark Duxbury says.

Northwest Christian scored first on a 27-yard pass play. Newport answered later in the first quarter with a two-yard touchdown run by Hank Kirkwood but missed the extra point. The Crusaders were up 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Both teams scored again in the in the second quarter. Northwest Christian scored first on another pass play, this one a four yarder. Newport came back with another short Kirkwood TD run, another two yarder. Kirkwood hit Austin Owen for a successful two-point conversion to tie the game at 14 all.

The Crusaders didn’t let it stay tied, scoring on a 10-yard run. They were back in the endzone on a 12-yard pass play to go into halftime up 26-14.

“Defensively we didn’t tackle very well in the first half,” Duxbury says.

Northwest Christian added to the lead in the third quarter with a seven-yard rush to go up 32-14.

Newport started the fourth quarter with a oneyard rushing TD by Kirkwood.

Northwest Christian took advantage of turnovers. Newport had four interceptions and a fumble. The Crusaders returned a fourth quarter pick for a TD.

“Turnovers were the deciding factor,” Duxbury says. “I made a couple bad play calls that put Hank Kirkwood in a bad position, which led to two of the turnovers.”

Northwest Christian scored again on a three-yard pass to close out the game 40-22.

Kirkwood scored all Newport’s touchdowns. He had 53 yards and three TDs on 14 carries. Brody Driver carried a dozen times for 42 yards. Driver gave up a fumble. Preston Wacenske rushed three times for 17 yards. Kutter Driver rushed twice for four yards and returned a kickoff 46 yards. Brad Martin had three carries for 24 yards.

Kirkwood threw for 86 yards on 25 attempts, completing a dozen passes. He was intercepted four times.

Dylan Aubrey had three catches for 29 yards. Ryder Brown caught one for 20 yards, Kutter Driver caught one for 16 yards, Brad Owen caught three for nine yards and Austin Owen caught two passes for a negative one yard.

On defense, Aiden Kramer had four tackles, Damien Hamberg had three, as did Brody Driver. Ten other Grizzlies got in on tackles. Nate Shaw intercepted a pass for Newport, as did Martin.

Newport (1-1, 3-1) hosts Asotin (2-0, 4-0) for its homecoming game Friday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.