YAKIMA — It was a tale of two halves.

The Ephrata Tigers trailed 18-0 at halftime, but played shutout football in the second half and scored twice in the third quarter. Two more chances in the fourth came up empty, and the Tigers ran out of time in an 18-14 league loss at East Valley on Friday, Sept. 11.

The Tigers dropped to 0-2 with the loss while East Valley moved to 2-0.

On offense, Ephrata ran 74 plays to the Red Devils' 41, racked up 267 total yards (204 on the ground), compiled 18 first downs, and didn't turn the ball over, a week after giving it away five times in a season-opening loss to Selah.

EHS head coach Patrick Mitchell said he laid out the second half strategy for his players in the locker room at halftime.

"I said we are going to get the ball in the second half first, we're going to go down score," Mitchell said. "Then we are going to get a big stop on defense, go down and score and it will be a one score game and we are right back in this, men."

In his second varsity start, Ephrata quarterback Cooper Vasquez ran for 62 yards and a touchdown and completed 9 of 28 passes for 63 yards.

Junior running back Chance Lee carried the ball 15 times for 80 yards and a touchdown and threw a two-point conversion pass. Senior Carson Andrus added 40 yards on 11 carries, and senior receiver Mitch Morford caught six passes for 46 yards.

East Valley sophomore quarterback Liam Peterson completed 11-of-16 for 146 yards and two touchdowns with an interception, and running back Zayden Wade ran 21 times for 120 yards.

The Red Devils scored on their first drive, a 21-yard pass from Peterson to Banyon Dunn, and Antonio Cannizzaro ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

The Tigers seemed poised to counter that when sophomore Levi Wilson answered with a 71-yard kickoff return to the East Valley 21, but then lost ground to penalties and turned the ball over on downs.

Ephrata's defense stopped East Valley at the goal line on the next drive and forced a 17-yard field goal by the Red Devils' Angel Lopez for an 11-0 advantage. Peterson then found Joshua Walruff from the 29 in the second quarter for a touchdown that concluded EV's first-half scoring.

Ephrata took the second-half kickoff and drove 13 plays for a touchdown. Vasquez ran 12 yards on fourth down from the East Valley 33 to keep the drive alive. Morford then caught a 6-yard pass and Andrus ran 6 setting up first-and-goal from the 7.

An East Valley encroachment penalty moved the ball up to the 3, and Morford's 2-yard catch put the Tigers inches from the goal line. A Tiger false start pushed them back to the 5, Lee ran 4 yards to the 1, and Vasquez kept the ball and pushed into the end zone on the next play.

Then the Tigers opened their bag of tricks. Running back Lee took a handoff from Vasquez on the two-point conversion try and threw left-handed to Morford in the end zone.

After that, said Mitchell, “You could feel our guys start to believe."

Ephrata’s next scoring drive came after junior linebacker Kai Kaleohano intercepted a Peterson pass near midfield. Now on offense, junior Caleb Newton ran 17 yards to the 22, Lee had an 8-yard carry and another run down to the East Valley 6 yard-line. Andrus was dropped for a 7-yard loss, but rebounded on the next snap, with a 12-yard run to the 1-yard line.

Lee finished the drive by punching the final yard into the end zone. But on the conversion attempt, his two-point carry was stopped short of the goal line. Ephrata entered the fourth quarter trailing only 18-14.

But in the final period, the Tigers drove deep twice into EV territory but couldn't reach the end zone. They finished 2-of-6 on fourth-down attempts.

"Down the stretch, we had two really positive drives that we just couldn't quite finish off with scores and we came up a little short," Mitchell said. "Proud of our defensive effort in the second half pitching a shutout and making the necessary changes to help us get back into the game."

Mitchell said the offensive line's halftime adjustments opened up the run game for Lee, Andrus, Vasquez and Newton, who combined for 198 yards on the ground.

"We came together in the second half and became a team," he said. "Would have been easy to come out of the half down 18-0 and just say maybe next week. These guys took on the challenge."

Ephrata travels down the road to Quincy at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 at Jackrabbit Stadium in the annual Battle of the Basin. The Jackrabbits, also off to an 0-2 start, lost 47-0 at Selah on Friday.

"Can't wait for the Battle of the Basin. It's a great rivalry between two towns with a lot of history and we are looking forward to the challenge," Mitchell said.

Elsewhere around the CWAC in Week Two: Prosser beat Othello 28-8, Grandview edged Ellensburg 14-12, Selah blanked Quincy 47-0, and Toppenish beat 4A Davis 13-12 in a nonleague game.

Coming up in Week Three: Selah (2-0) is at Othello (1-1), East Valley (1-0) is at Toppenish (1-0), Prosser (2-0) is at Grandview (1-1), and Ellensburg (0-2) hosts 1A Rochester in a nonleague game.