The preliminaries are over for Mid-Columbia Conference football teams.

Now, it’s time to get into the meat of conference play.

And after two weeks of non-league contests, the MCC in Week 3 has a couple of marquee matchups.

Let’s start with a showdown tonight, when Southridge (1-1) visits Chiawana (2-0) at Edgar Brown Stadium in Pasco.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

The visiting Suns opened the season with an impressive 29-9 over Cheney, and they then lost 30-24 on the road to a powerful Eastmont squad.

“It was really a physical game. Eastmont is a really good 4A team,” said Suns head coach Matt Johnson.

But this Southridge squad looks to be pretty good itself.

Behind Johnson’s Wing-T offense, the Suns boast the top two rushers in the MCC. Tayton Jackman has rushed for 219 yards, while Jacob Korotkov is at 211.

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Chiawana coach Scott Bond is well aware of the Suns’ offensive talent.

“You don’t see that offense run much over here anymore,” said Bond, who notes his defense will have to play assignment football. “Sometimes kids might face ghosts. If you’re supposed to tackle the dive, then tackle the dive whether he has the ball or not.”

That vaunted Riverhawks defense has been, to no one’s surprise, solid this season.

In two road victories — a 28-7 win at Camas in Week 1; a 20-14 victory at Mead in Week 2 — Chiawana’s D has forced six turnovers.

“The last couple of years, we’ve gone into the half either leading Chiawana or tied with them,” said Johnson. Then they pull away in the second half. The question is how can we execute down the stretch, and stay our course? Hopefully, we can break a couple of big ones or two.”

Meanwhile, the Riverhawks on offense haven’t given up the football yet.

Against Mead, the host Panthers scored midway through the fourth quarter to cut Chiawana’s lead to 20-14.

But the Riverhawks used ball control the rest of the way and ran out the clock.

“They did a good job getting in the 4 minutes of offense, working the clock and getting the first downs to run the clock out,” said Bond. “We had to work through all of our (running backs). Cooper Cissne, Sawyer Sommerville and Gage Williams.”

Therein lies Bond’s current problem. He and his staff are trying to build some depth by getting the underclassmen more reps while getting some of the experienced two-way players some needed rest.

“I thought we played Mead well in the 1st half,” said Bond. “But in the second half, we gotta finish some games. In the second half, we’ve been wearing down.

“Playing (Southridge) in a short week has always been hard,” Bond added. “It’s gonna be a battle.”

Braves, Lions meet as early unbeatens

Meanwhile, the long-time crosstown rivalry, Kamiakin at Kennewick, is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Lampson Stadium.

The two teams first met in 1971.

This year’s matchup will involve two unbeaten squads. Kamiakin (2-0) has had two road victories with a 21-7 win over Evergreen of Vancouver, and a 49-7 shellacking at West Valley of Yakima.

Kennewick took down Pasco on the road 51-12 in Week 1, then had an impressive 27-7 win over closeting Gonzaga Prep last Friday.

Lions coach Randy Affholter likes what he’s seen so far, but he’s still cautious.

“We got better from Week 1 to Week 2, but we still have got some green cats out there,” said Affholter.

Affholter says Kamiakin has some explosive players on offense — including Mason Severson and Michael Kori.

“Offensively, we’ve got to keep them off the field,” said Affholter. “We’ve got to do a good job of controlling the football, and we have to try to have those grinding drives that take 10 to 12 minutes.”

That may be hard. Scott Biglin has an outstanding defensive unit too.

“I’ve got probably one of best defensive coaching staffs in the league,” said Biglin. “Defensive coordinator) Oliver (Browning) does such a good job with the guys.”

On defense, the Lions must be able to handle Kamiakin’s different looks.

“It comes down to alignment-assignment,” Affholter said. “If you’re not in the correct alignment, how can you handle your (defensive) assignment?”

Biglin says the Braves have improved since the opener under quarterback Gavin Cronrath.

The senior is 20 for 27 passing for 221 yards over two games.

“He’s a great kid with a great story,” said Biglin. “He competed for the quarterback job last year and got beat out. Any kid in that situation might think about a transfer. But he wanted to play again, and he told me ‘Coach, I’ll do anything you want. Play wide receiver or running back.”

When there was a battle again for starting quarterback this season, Cronrath won the job.

“He played against Kennewick last year,” said Biglin. “He’s not scared.”

The bottom line, though, is that whoever is the most physical in this contest will have the advantage.

“We have to be physical and not make mistakes,” said Biglin, “because they’re not gonna make mistakes. We know we’ve got our hands full and we’ve got to be perfect.”