Late touchdown pushes Kelso past Heritage 26-23

After a quiet first half, Friday night’s game between Heritage and Kelso ended on a crescendo.

River Liepa’s 2-yard touchdown run with 51 seconds left gave the Hilanders a non-league road victory over the Timberwolves, 26-23 at McKenzie Stadium.

Kelso (6-2, 2-0 3A Greater St. Helens League) now heads into next week’s match-up against Columbia River (4-4, 2-0 3A GSHL) at District Stadium with some momentum to decide the 3A GSHL championship.

“It’s going to be fun,” Kelso head coach Steve Amrine said of the matchup against River. “Let’s go turn it loose. We’re both in the playoffs, we’re playing for a conference title. Their record is a little different, but it’s still River.”

The Hilanders are preparing for everything that the Chieftains will throw at them.

“I watched them last night, don’t kid yourself,” Amrine said. “They’ve got guys that can run, big guys up front, guys that can throw it and catch it. They’re solid defensively, they’re well-coached.”

The Hilanders made the game-winning play with their quarterback and leading-rusher A.J. Hoggatt watching from the sidelines after suffering an injury on the previous play.

“We talked about it the last two weeks about somebody coming back and saying, ‘hey coach, run the ball behind me, do this,’ ” Amrine said. “The whole right side came over there and we ran 10-iso on the right side.”

The run gave Kelso the lead, which they were able to hold on to as Heritage (2-6, 0-6 4A GSHL) simply ran out of time.

Heritage’s offense woke up in the second half as quarterback Gavin Lee threw for 279 yards and ran for 65 more. Heritage receiver Race Bynum had 159 receiving yards.

But Kelso’s fourth quarter performance was even better as they scored 19 points in the final period.

Kelso had the game’s only touchdown in the first half as was a punting showcase. Neither offense could get going and turnovers by both team made for a sloppy affair.

“We kept on shooting ourselves in the foot with the motion penalties. First and 15 is a tough down to work off of,” Amrine said.

Heritage lead running back and defensive back Kalani Umiamaka injured his left shoulder and was down on the turf for several minutes after a making a defensive play near their end zone late in the first half.

The Timberwolves kept Kelso from getting any points on the drive. But they lost Umiamaka for the rest of the game who took of his pads and wore an ice-pack over his left shoulder for the rest of the game.

Heritage will wrap up their season next week when they go to Doc Harris Stadium to take on Camas.

KELSO 26, HERITAGE 23

Kelso 0 7 0 19—26

Heritage 0 0 13 10—23

Second Quarter

K — Jared Bowlby 13 pass from A.J. Hoggatt (River Liepa kick)

Third Quarter

H — Gavin Lee 44 run (Kyle Hood kick)

H — Lee 11 run (PAT failed)

Fourth Quarter

K — Sonny Chhim 39 pass from Hoggatt (PAT failed)

K — Chhim 4 run (Liepa kick)

H — Nick Somboun 19 pass from Lee (Hood kick)

H — Kyle Hood 36 field goal

K — Liepa 2 run (PAT failed)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Kelso, Hoggatt 16-38, Bryce Miller 10-21, Liepa 5-10, Sonny Chhim 2-12, Jordan Gladson 1-5, Emmitt Kinch 1-(minus-11), Brandon Williams 1-1. Heritage, Lee 9-65, Lafi Sosene 11-54, Kalani Umiamaka 5-12, Race Bynum 2-11, Mason Garrett 1-1.

PASSING — Kelso, Hoggatt 11-19-1-158. Heritage, Lee 15-28-2-279.

RECEIVING — Kelso, Bowlby 6-54, Chhim 4-70, Cody DeRosier 1-26, Williams 1-12. Heritage, Bynum 6-158, Somboun 3-69, Sosene 2-21, Tashiem Hurse 2-11, Umiamaka 1-4, Tyler Vanbuskirk 1-15.