Spartans lose in shoot-out

PRIEST RIVER — Cameron Riley threw for 247-yards and gained 97-yards on the ground for the Spartans, who came up on the short end of a thrilling 49-35 shoot-out with Lethbridge, British Columbia, on Friday night.

Riley, a senior, scored three times through the air and made the entire Rams team miss during a 28-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-16 to keep Priest River’s hopes alive trailing six with time winding down in the third quarter.

“It was a shoot-out. They (Lethbridge) are a great team with some great athletes,” Spartan coach Shane Douglas said after the game. “I was proud of the way we kept coming back and scoring, that really showed a lot of pride.”

“Hopefully we can turn this loss into a nice character builder,” he added.

Brock Ramias ran in three short touchdowns and QB Colton Gibb added three more scores through the air for Lethbridge (3-0).

Spartan running back Tyler Barber caught touchdown passes of 35 and 15-yards to go along with 11 tackles on the other side of the ball.

Tom Cox led the way defensively with 14 tackles and a sack for Priest River (2-1) which travels to Chewelah on Friday.

Lethbridge   7   20   8   14   —   49

Priest River   14   7   6   8   —   38

PR — Cameron Riley 45 pass to R.C. Akre (Akre kick)

LB — Brock Ramias 6 run (Troy Ramias kick)

PR — Andy Meyer 3 run (Akre kick)

LB — Colton Gibb 24 pass to Brandon Karl (T. Ramias kick)

LB — B. Ramias 7 run (T. Ramias kick)

PR — Riley 35 pass to Tyler Barber (Akre kick)

LB — Gibb 23 pass to Kieran Bennett (T. Ramias kick no good)

PR — Riley 28 run (Akre kick no good)

LB — B. Ramias 4 run (Gibb pass to Karl)

LB — Gibb 35 pass to Bennett (T. Ramias kick)

PR — Riley 15 pass to Barber (Riley pass to Akre)

LB — Gibb 40 run (T. Ramias kick)