What started as a once dominant half, quickly turned into near disaster for the No. 7 Toledo football team. Building up a 22-0 lead against Wahkiakum in Cathlamet Friday night, the Riverhawks allowed a late score in the first half, and a kick return for a touchdown to open the second half to see their three-score lead suddenly become one in a matter of seconds of game time.
The Riverhawks, however, responded in a resounding way in a tough environment, scoring four second half touchdowns and defeating the Mules, 47-14, Friday night.
After Geoffrey Glass trotted in a touchdown from 18 yards out with 30 seconds remaining in the half, Toledo thought it had put together the finishing touches to a strong first half.
Then the Mules converted a fourth-and-15 where Kyler Sauce managed to break through a scrum for a score, and Dominic Curl opened the second half with a kick return for a score to make it 22-14.
But afterwards, the Riverhawks responded.
“Our guys played tough, they had to,” Riverhawks coach Mike Christensen said. “That was gut check time for us, we settled down and controlled the line of scrimmage and scored those four second half touchdowns. I’m proud of the way we responded, we stayed relaxed and played tough.”
Austin Norris scored on a 1-yard keeper, Ethen Carver added a 3-yard score, and Zane Ranney and Trevin Gale added two more scores to help Toledo take the commanding win on the road.
Carver had a team-high 168 rushing yards, and Glass added 116 on the ground. Norris had two touchdown passes, both to Glass, and a touchdown run.
Toledo will look to stay unbeaten in league play with a big test against Adna on the road this Friday.
