By Al Camp
The Chronicle
 
     OKANOGAN – The Okanogan County Commandos’ defense stayed too long on the field, with visiting minor league football team from Hermiston, Ore., eventually scoring on long pass plays in a 21-6 win April 3.
     The defense produced the Commandos’ lone score in the first half when Ryan Anderson came from the right side and sacked the quarterback, who was rolling to his right. The ball bounced loose to Justin Koepke, who is the left defensive end. He scooped it up and went untouched 40 yards.
     A two-point conversion pass was incomplete, leaving the Commandos up 6-0, where they remained until late in the third quarter.
     That does not mean Hermiston did not threaten, which it did late in the first half.
     Despite penalties that pushed Hermiston back to a long fourth down, the Hurricanes completed a pass for a first down then used one of its rare runs for a good gain to reach the Commandos’ three.
     That’s as far as they got.
     Hermiston used two long passes to pull in front 14-6 by the fourth quarter. A late Hail Mary pass was caught at the end of the game for the final margin.
     “We held them a long time, we just could not get the ball into the end zone,” Coach Malcolm Townsend said. “The defense did a great job to be on the field that long. And their quarterback did a great job.”
     The Commandos could not sustain drives, getting inside the 30 six times and inside the 25 five times but never scoring.
     “We had some nice drives, we just sputtered at the end,” Townsend said.
     Hermiston kept one scoring drive alive when a punt snap went over the kicker’s head. He ran down the ball and threw without looking 40 yards down field and a receiver caught it.
     The Commandos gained 96 yards on carries led by Ryan Cate, 11-65, Shawn Townsend 2-5 and Craig Hall 5-24.
     Quarterback Ian Ashley completed 12 of 27 passes for 122 yards and an interception.
     Enver Figueroa, in his first game with the Commandos, caught four passes for 51 yards. Shawn Townsend caught two for 48 yards (both were 24 yarders).
     Defensively, Joany Fonseca intercepted a pass.
     The Commandos (1-1) stay home with the Spokane Wolfpack (2-1) at 6 p.m. this Saturday, April 10, at Okanogan High School, 244 N. Fifth Ave.
     “We need to shore up our pass defense,” coach Townsend said. “Every team in the league has one loss. We just got to win games.”
     Spokane is one of four teams at 2-1. The Commandos, which had a bye last week, is one of three teams at 1-1. There are two teams at 0-2.