RITZVILLE — On Nov. 9, the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos took the field one final time in their 2024 season, traveling to face 1A Riverside in a non-league matchup.  

Having scheduled to play the Rams earlier that week, there wasn’t much time to prepare for their upcoming opponent. With short notice, the bulk of the game plan relied on senior running back Brody Boness. 

“There wasn’t a huge game plan – it was like, ‘Oh, we’re playing a game!’” LRS Head Coach Brendan Bermea said. “When you get into situations like that, you kind of just have to go, ‘Hey, who’s our guy? Well, Brody’s our guy. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, but we’re just going to have to lean on him.’” 

Boness ran for 432 yards in the win, scoring five touchdowns on 54 carries. The senior running back also completed a pass to fellow senior Zach Klein for a 74-yard touchdown in the second quarter. 

“Honestly, it didn’t even feel like I got the ball that many times. Someone had told me right after the game, and I really didn’t believe him. It felt like a pretty normal game.” 

After Riverside took an 8-0 lead in the first quarter, Boness reached the end zone for the first time of the game on a five-yard run later in the opening frame. His pass to Klein gave the Broncos a 12-8 lead at halftime. Following Riverside taking back the lead on a 75-yard run in the third quarter, Boness scored on touchdown runs of 58 and 14 yards in the third quarter, as both teams continued to trade scores.  

“It was a tight game all the way through, and at a certain point we looked around and said, ‘Man, Brody’s running the ball well.’ We tried some other things, but we just got six yards on this carry (by Boness). Let’s give it to him again, let’s give it to him again,” Bermea said.  

Boness scored his fourth touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter to extend the LRS lead and added some insurance on a two-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to give LRS its eventual 39-29 win. 

“I was just worried about winning -- the stats weren’t even going through my head during the game at all,” Boness said. “I think that’s why I didn’t believe it at the end of the game.” 

Surprisingly, Boness said there were other games throughout the season where he felt more tired afterward. He attributed that this conditioning throughout the season, plus the adrenaline from playing in his final game in a Bronco uniform. 

“I knew it was my last game – I'll play my hardest every single game, but just knowing it was my last game, I think my mind and body gave a little extra,” he said.  

By the end of the game, Boness had reached 54 carries. 

“Riverside gave us a look that we liked, and we had some things that were working really well. We just stayed with it. I didn’t even realize it until I looked at it later, when I got the stats – I was just like, ‘I’m dumb as hell, I just handed the kid the ball 54 times.’” Bermea said with a laugh. 

Boness’ 432 rushing yards are the most in a single game in LRS history, Bermea said. It’s one of the many rushing records the senior running back set this season.  

“It was an incredible performance and one that’s going to be hard to match the rest of my coaching career,” Bermea said. “If I’m still here for 40 years, I’ll probably still people about the time that Brody Boness ran for 400 yards.” 

On top of the single-game record, Boness set new highs in career rushing yards (4,416) and single-season rushing yards (2,203 this season). 

“If there’s a rushing record, he’s got it – he probably has the career touchdown record for rushing as well,” Bermea said. 

He totaled 65 career rushing touchdowns in his four seasons with the Broncos. 

The Broncos ran for 2,653 yards as a team this season; Boness ran more than 2,200 of them. Of the 23 rushing scores this season, 20 were by Boness. The senior even threw for three of the nine Bronco touchdown passes this season, and returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Of the nine touchdown catches, Boness accounted for three of them. 

“You don’t have a lot of kids who walk through the door who squad 400 pounds, who bench 300 pounds,” Bermea said. “You just don’t get that, and at the 2B level, it was amazing.” 

Under Bermea, who just concluded his third season as head coach of the Broncos, LRS has brought a run-heavy offense to the field on Friday nights. 

“I expected that we were going to run the ball a lot, because that’s what we had done in the past since our new head coach came in,” Boness said. “I knew we were going to run it a lot, it was just whether or not we were going to be able to produce and execute.” 

After splitting carries with former Bronco Brock Kinch, who now plays college football at Pacific Lutheran University, Boness entered the 2024 season as the feature back in the LRS offense. 

“He took a lot of the leadership onto his shoulders,” Bermea said. “He had some great examples before – when I first got here a couple years ago, I was blessed with a great senior group and they had some great leadership qualities. Brody was a part of that group as a sophomore. He took a lot of that mantle on.” 

In the season-opener against Liberty (Spangle), Boness ran for 289 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-18 win. 

“As a team, it showed what we were capable of if we played together and did our assignments,” Boness said. “Our run game, our goal was go get five yards every time and if we did, that was seen as a win. Every once in a while, we’d get a big run, and if we got stopped on the run, we were able to rely on throwing a pass.” 

As the season progressed and defenders keyed in on stopping the run, the Broncos were still able to maintain a strong presence in the run game; Boness had nine games this season where he ran for more than 100 yards and ran for 200-plus in seven games this fall. 

“We fully expected that going into each week; we just added different variations and tightened it up or we spread it out,” Boness said. “We played with a double wing, and that really made the box tight; then we spread it out towards the end and went to a four-wide, and that lightened the box a little bit and gave us more passing opportunities.” 

“Playing physical allowed us to rush for that many yards – I don’t take credit for all of it at all. I definitely give a lot of credit to my line, my coaching and my teammates,” Boness said.  

Boness credited the Bronco offensive line for paving the way all season. 

“You’ve got to trust that the guys in front of you are going to do their job and make the block; if you can trust them to do their job, then it becomes pretty easy because then you can just play,” Boness said. “... You don’t have to worry about making an extra person miss if you have a good line.” 

Bermea chose one word to describe what Boness brings to the football field; “Physicality.” 

“Finishing runs, bailing out his guys. One of the things we talk about for running backs in the system we run is we only need three of four yards – that's falling forward, and he did a great job of putting his head down sometimes when we didn’t block things the best and getting us out of tough spots,” Bermea said.  

After rushing for 440 yards and nine scores as a freshman, Boness totaled 678 yards and eight scores his sophomore season and 1,095 yards and 14 touchdowns in his junior campaign. His final tally in his senior season was 2,203 and 20 touchdowns on 310 carries. 

“Even though we may not have had the win-loss record like some of these teams in the past, his individual accomplishments are as high up there for anybody who I think has come through the doors as this school,” Bermea said. 

    LRS senior Brody Boness carries the ball during a game against Warden. Boness set numerous rushing records with the Broncos this season, including the most yards in a single season (2,203).
  

    LRS senior Brody Boness ran for 432 yards and five touchdowns in the season finale against Riverside. The 432 yards are the most in a single game in LRS history, Head Coach Brendan Bermea said.
  

    While serving as the team’s lead running back, LRS senior Brody Boness (25) also started at linebacker for the Broncos this fall.