West Side back in the semis after second-half eruption against Ririe

DAYTON — With a home win Friday night, the West Side Pirates earned the right to play in the state tournament semifinals for the 10th season in a row.

For 25 minutes, the No. 1 Pirates (10-0) and No. 11 Ririe Bulldogs (5-6) seemed to be evenly matched. The Bulldogs trailed 20-14 after a kick-return touchdown to open the second half from Ririe senior Camden Stosich.

West Side, according to longtime head coach Tyson Moser, could have let the pressure of the moment and a momentum-swinging play get the better of them. Instead, led by All-State running back Drake Sage, the Pirates found the end zone on their next four possessions, scoring 26 points in the third quarter and riding that wave to a 53-20 victory.

“Instead of them kids getting their heads down, they really rallied back,” Moser said, pointing to the culture of success that has spread across West Side football. “The kids just believe that they’re going to win — that’s the West Side culture. … Sometimes you lose momentum, and the biggest thing you can do is take it back, you can’t let it snowball on you.”

As they have so many time this season, and during Moser’s head coaching tenure, West Side quickly established the run, handing the ball off 11 times in a row to start the game. The Pirates capped the game’s first possession with a Sage one-yard touchdown run.

But the Bulldogs came back with a touchdown of their own.

West Side answered right back on another Sage scoring run, this one finishing a drive that consisted of seven plays — again, all runs.

While Sage and the Pirates were enjoying their standard success on the ground, the explosive plays didn’t start to come until sophomore quarterback Bronco Moser and the passing game began to produce.

That happened with just over a minute left in the second quarter, when Bronco hit junior Hayden Checketts for a 45-yard scoring strike.

Asked if he felt the productive passing attack helped open running lanes, Sage said, without a doubt, that it did.

“Yeah, it definitely does,” he said. “They can’t just focus on our run, they’ve got to respect our pass game a little more. Shout-out Bronco, he played great.”

Tyson added on, saying that the openings have been there all season for the Pirate pass game, but until Friday those openings hadn’t been exploited.

“Bronco did a great job, and those receivers did a great job,” the coach said. “It definitely helps when teams are keying so hard on the run, and you can hit a couple play-action passes — especially the one right before half that gave is the two-touchdown lead, that was huge.”

Stosich’s 85-yard return undid that long pass play. But the affect it had on the Ririe defense could not be undone.

Two of Sage’s next five carries went for scores of more than 20 yards — including a 56-yard dash on West Side’s next possession.

After offensive touchdowns on three-straight possessions, Sage added on with a 24-yard pick-six, giving the Pirates a 46-14 lead with just over five minutes left in the third quarter.

For someone who has been among the state’s leading touchdown-scorers, Sage said that defensive scores are a little extra special.

“They’re fun,” he said. “It’s just different, you don’t get them all the time.”

He finished the game with the defensive score, to go with 20 carries for 173 yards and four rushing touchdowns.

Bronco completed five of six pass attempts for 106 yards and three touchdowns.

Ririe was led by junior running back Kyler Lewis, who carried the ball 18 times for 59 yards.

The Pirates advance to take on the winner of Saturday’s matchup between Grangeville and West Jefferson at West Jefferson High School.

West Side, which has won five state championships in the last seven years, now sits just two wins shy of adding another title to the record books.

Asked what his team will need to do to get those two wins, Tyson said bluntly:

“You always need a little bit of luck. … You need to stay healthy, and you need a little bit of luck.”

Sage said that winning another championship will require the West Side offensive line to continue playing at the incredibly high level it has maintained all season.

As for the state record-tying streak of 10 consecutive state semifinal rounds, Tyson, in his 19th season as head coach at West Side, said success has come from the continued effort from players and continuity in his coaching staff — explaining that he has had the same assistants for most of the past decade.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long,” he said. “Ten straight years in the semis is quite an accomplishment — there’s been a lot of kids come through the program in those 10 years that have kept that going.”

Sage, whose older brother Crew was part of three state-champion Pirate teams, said that success has become part of West Side football.

“It’s just, kinda, expected for us,” he said, “so it’s what we should do. But it feels good to make it back.”