It took the Toledo coaching staff just a glance or two at Kittitas-Thorp’s film to find the focus for the Riverhawks’ preparation for Friday’s 2B first-round matchup at Kelso: senior quarterback Josh Rosbach.
“On every film it looks like he’s the best player on the field,” head coach Mike Christensen said. “He’s a really, really, really good football player. Fast, quick. He reminds me, when he runs the ball, of Wyatt (Nef) last year where he’s shifty. But he runs away from kids too; it looks like he’s the fastest kid on the field too.”
Rosbach’s done it all for the Coyotes, who earned the final seed in the tournament after upsetting Columbia (Burbank) in a crossover last week. He opened that matchup with a kickoff return touchdown, before settling in to his usual role of doing it all on offense and anchoring the defense from his strong safety spot.
And he’s given the Toledo staff a bit of a problem; Christensen usually serves as the scout team quarterback, but his days of dipping and dodging defenders in the backfield and outrunning would-be tacklers are a bit behind him.
Luckily, the Riverhawks have a secret weapon: remember when Christensen said Rosbach ran like Nef did last season?
“One thing we do have is Wyatt,” he said.
For this week, Toledo’s turning to its all-area quarterback, who stuck around after graduating and has played every role from volunteer assistant to trainer to ball boy. Now, he gets to play quarterback again, trying to give his own defense fits in the name of preparation.
“The hard part is the angles you take,” Christensen said. “It’s much different angles than you’d think you would need to take. We did that a little bit when we were playing Kalama. (Aiden) Brown is a good athlete too… but it’s a different animal. This guy scrambles to run, while Brown would scramble to throw.”
Going up against a playmaker like Rosbach, and running his heavy-formation rushing attack, some might expect Christensen to try to eat clock and play defense with his offense. But at the moment, the Riverhawks might be going the opposite direction, putting extra gas in the tank and trying to run hurry-up, at least to start.
“We’re going to try to go quick,” Christensen said. “We want to score. We’ve been working on it for a few weeks now, putting a faster offense on the field, and I think we’re going to do that Friday. But if they start scoring on us, we might have to slow things down and run down the clock.”
Toledo will take whichever offensive route can get it a win, playing its first home playoff game since 2018 at Kelso’s Schroeder Field. But on defense, there’s only one way to beat the Coyotes, and it starts with containing Rosbach, something only Lake Roosevelt, Burbank, and Goldendale have been able to do.
It’ll be a tough test for a Riverhawk defense that allowed just 26 points in SWW 2B South play, but one Toledo is raring for.
“I think this group specifically has had a chip on their shoulder ever since that Raymond-South Bend loss, and they want to prove it a bit,” Christensen said. “I’m excited to see us finally get out and play some loser-out football. I think our seniors are going to respond.”
