Wenatchee football’s dream of an upset of fourth-ranked Chiawana in the quarterfinals of the State football playoffs on Nov. 23 at the Apple Bowl was dashed almost from the start.

The Riverhawks took an early lead and never looked back, taking a 56-34 win over the Panthers to advance to the State semifinals. Wenatchee (9-3) finished its season by placing among the top eight teams in the state.

The Panthers’ first points didn’t come until the second quarter when senior quarterback Dillon Sugg threw an 81-yard TD pass to senior Blake Aguilar and junior Chase Resch caught a 17-yard TD pass from Sugg. The Panthers trailed at halftime 35-14.

“The one thing these guys do is they play hard,” Coach Scott Devereaux said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, we’re going to play hard until the end, they did that all year long.”

The Panthers kept pushing in the second half with two TD runs by senior Isaiah Brandt-Sims, one for 88 yards and the other from two yards out. The Panthers also scored on a 12-yard TD reception by Resch from Sugg.

“[The team is] going to be disappointed … but they shouldn’t be upset; they had a great year; league champions, won a playoff game,” Devereaux said. “They should be happy with that.”

“I’m not really sad the season’s over, because we did big things, but I’m just sad I’m not going to be able to be on the practice field and play with some of these guys again; that’s the worst part of it,” said Aguilar.

Devereaux admitted to having high hopes for this season. “I thought we’d be league champs, that was our goal,” Devereaux said. “Once you get to playoffs you just have to take it one game at a time, anything can happen.”

Wenatchee played a close game at home with Gig Harbor Nov. 16 in the  first playoff game and won 33-31.Wenatchee ended the first quarter trailing 19-7 with an 82-yard reception by Aguilar from Sugg accounting for their only score.

Four field goals from King, a 2-yard TD run by Brandt-Sims and a 34-yard TD pass from Sugg to senior Spencer Smith put Gig Harbor back in its place. A strong defensive stand at the goal line secured another win for the Panthers.

The last league game before playoffs was against Sunnyside on Nov. 8 in the Apple Bowl. The Panthers won 55-3.

Touchdowns for the Panthers were scored by Brandt-Sims, Resch, Smith, and Aguilar from Sugg, and a receptetion from sophomore Brandon Graves to junior Adam Chvilicek.