ORTING – For 42 of 48 minutes Friday night, 13th-seeded Prosser kept the Wing-T offense of No. 4 Orting from doing much damage.

In those 6 minutes, though, the unbeaten Cardinals scored on the game’s opening possession of and put the Class 2A first-round contest away with an 89-yard sprint to the end zone.

Orting improved to 11-0 and advanced to the state quarterfinals with a 21-7 victory against the Mustangs on a rainy Pierce County evening.

While, for the second straight year, Prosser finished the season 7-4, giving an unbeaten team all it could handle. Last season the Mustangs fell to No. 7 West Valley of Spokane 29-28.

“We were on the doorstep two years in a row, so it’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Prosser coach Corey Ingvalson said. “It shows that you’re not that far away, but you got to learn from it.”

Orting, the SPSL 2A champion, took the opening kickoff from 63 yards, converting a fourth down along the way, and scored a touchdown to cap a 5½-munute drive.

After the initial shock of seeing the misdirection and inside handoffs, though, the Mustangs defense was good to go.

“We knew that drive was going to be the most challenging, but after that we settled in,” Ingvalson said.

Neither offense did much the rest of the first half.

Orting’s special teams did deliver, however, with Shiron Seniours returning a punt 65 yards for a score with less than 2 minutes left in the first half to give the Cardinals a 14-0 lead.

Prosser seized momentum midway through the third quarter on Isaac Montejano's interception. With 5:09 left in the period, sophomore quarterback Daniel Diaz connected with Noah Medrano for a 14-yard score, slicing Orting’s lead in half.

The Mustangs were on the verge of tying the score early in the fourth, driving to the Cardinals’ 14-yard line.

But a sack and penalty left Prosser with a long fourth down, and Diaz’s pass to the end zone fell incomplete.

With less than 4 minutes, the Mustangs threatened again, with a 33-yard pass moving the ball to the 31-yard line.

Again, the drive stalled and a fourth-and-18 pass was intercepted at the 14.

Two plays later, on a third and 13, Israel Shrode broke free on the sideline for an 89-yard touchdown with 1:29 left.

“We had some definite opportunities,” Ingvalson said. “We didn’t capitalize and they did.”