Snake River earns upset win over Marsh Valley behind surprising star performance
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BLACKFOOT — Bitten by the injury bug, Snake River came into its Friday night conference showdown with Marsh Valley with just 27 healthy players suited up.
One of those players was second-string quarterback Rylan Ibarra, who was forced into starting duty due to injury. But he was knocked out of the game in the second quarter, when he suffered a leg injury.
Pressed into an emergency decision, the Panthers (4-3, 2-0) put the ball in the hands of senior wide receiver-safety Johnny Walker, who finished the game with one rushing touchdown and one passing touchdown, leading Snake River to the 20-10 upset victory over the Eagles (4-2, 0-1).
Walker told EastIdahoNews.com after the game that he had never taken an in-game snap at QB in his life — that the extent of his experience at the position was as the scout team’s running QB.
“Whenever I’m not on defense, I’m always playing quarterback on scout O,” he said. “I step in where I need to. … I wanted to win, I tried to do what was best to put my team in the best position.”
Following Ibarra’s injury, the Panthers went to wide receiver-defensive back Preston Wheatley at quarterback for its final few snaps of the first half. When they returned to the field after the break, it was a gloveless Walker who warmed up along the sideline.
Asked if halftime saw him wandering the locker room looking for QB volunteers, Snake River head coach Jeff Daley laughed.
“Eh, yes and no,” he said. “We just thought, with Johnny Walker and his athleticism … we’ll just let him make some plays, and that’s what he did.”
Wheatley, he added, has taken some snaps during practice but Walker presented an aspect of explosiveness Daley and his staff decided would be a benefit.
Marsh Valley won the coin toss and elected to kick the ball away to the Panthers. But, rather than sending it deep, the Eagles ran a successful onside kick, and started the game with the ball in Panther territory.
It took just six plays for Marsh Valley to find the endzone. Quarterback Cooper Bowman put his team on the doorstep scampering to the 1 yard-line before he was pushed out of bounds. One play later, running back Christian Hinrichs punched it in.
When the Panthers finally did get the ball, it didn’t take long to answer.
Walker — still playing wide receiver — took a sweep 79 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown. But a missed extra point meant Marsh Valley maintained the lead. Less than five minutes into the game, the two teams had combined for 13 points and nearly 150 yards of offense.
The defenses got stingy from there.
It wasn’t until the near-midway point of the second quarter when the game saw its next points, and they came on another explosive play from Snake River — a 57-yard connection from Ibarra to receiver Justin Wray.
Ibarra then found Landon Williams in the endzone for a two-point conversion.
The starting signal-caller completed all three of his pass attempts for 80 yards and the one touchdown, adding 14 rushing yards on two carries before he left the game.
Marsh Valley made it a four-point game when, after running back Bo Larsen completed a 23-yard pass to Wyatt Marshall on a fake punt, kicker Seth Bartchi converted a 45-yard field goal as time expired on the second quarter.
The Eagles never scored again, though, as the offense struggled to find any room to run and the defense found stopping the Walker-led Panther offense a difficult task.
Bowman completed just two of 11 pass attempts, for 14 yards, for Marsh Valley.
Walker, on the other hand, connected of two of four for 59 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown pass to Wray, who wrestled away possession of the ball from a Marsh Valley defender who appeared to have secured an interception in the endzone.
Wray’s fight, on both sides of the ball, personified the fight the entire shorthanded Panther team showed all night.
“That’s a gritty group of kids right there. They showed a lot of heart,” Daley said.
The coach was sure to note how his offensive line controlled the game, and his defense executed the gameplan to perfection, stuffing a Marsh Valley team that received top-five votes in this week’s media poll.
But, it was the senior Walker who starred, filling in at quarterback in his team’s time of need — on senior night.
“What a great senior night there,” Daley said of Walker. “You take your hat off to a kid like that, to step into that situation and do what he did, that’s amazing.”
“It feels awesome,” Walker said of winning on senior night. “I never thought that I would be playing quarterback, I just love that I was able to step up for my team tonight and make some plays.
The Eagles travel to Bear Lake for another conference showdown next week.
Snake River will also be on the road at American Falls. A victory over the Beavers would secure a 4A South East Idaho Conference championship for the Panthers.