For the second consecutive week, the T-Birds turned up their offense during the second half – and in the fourth quarter, especially – scoring 20 points in the fourth for a 41-18 Class 2A Evergreen Conference win at Tumwater District Stadium. The game was the conference opener for both teams.
“It was good to seem them make good plays,” Tumwater coach Sid Otton said.
Tumwater (2-1 overall, 1-0 EvCo) has improved its offensive scoring output each week following a 21-point effort against Timberline and a 36-point performance against Clover Park.
On Friday, Tumwater amassed 372 yards of total offense, including 248 yards from the backfield of Josh Yandle, Christian Bush and Josh Quintero.
Yandle had a team-high 131 on 14 carries. He had touchdowns of 3, 29 and 14 yards, with the latter coming with 8 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter to increase Tumwater’s lead to 33-12.
His was the second of three fourth-quarter touchdowns for Tumwater, with the final one coming on Michael Glasgo’s 39-yard interception return.
The T-Birds had momentum going into halftime after quarterback Kyle Warner sailed a pass to tight end Jake Dowers, who hauled it in for a 35-yard touchdown as the first-half horn sounded. Dowers’ touchdown catch, his second of the game, gave the T-Birds a 21-6 lead.
“You couldn’t ask for a better present right there,” Otton said of the final play of the first half. “We’ve only practiced that a few times this year.”
Dowers’ first touchdown was the first score of the game, and it came on a halfback pass from Daniel Hinkle. Facing third-and-8 from the River Ridge 21 with 2:46 left in the first quarter, Hinkle found Dowers in the end zone to give Tumwater the 7-0 lead.
River Ridge (0-3 overall, 0-1 EvCo), which had 233 yards of total offense, had its second-best scoring output of the season, but the Hawks are winless after three games for the first time since 2007. That season, the Hawks finished 4-5, narrowly missing the playoffs.
“We have to be able to recover from mistakes and keep doing our jobs,” River Ridge coach Steve Schultz said. “We need to learn to keep our heads up.”
River Ridge had three first-half penalties for 30 yards, and all three came during big offensive drives.
Momentum was hard to come by for the Hawks, especially after a 10-yard penalty in the red zone on their final offensive possession in the second quarter. Six-foot-4 tight end Jonathan Witt caught a 20-yard pass inside the Tumwater 5, but the play was called back because of a holding penalty.
It was the Adam Walker-to-Brad Wallace show offensively for River Ridge. Walker, the Hawks’ senior quarterback, ran for 46 of his team’s 68 first-half yards on the ground. He also showed off his arm when he found Wallace, a freshman, for a 53-yard touchdown with 3:01 left in the second quarter.
Wallace finished with 123 yards receiving on three big-time catches of 53, 29 and 41 yards.
“When your offense is struggling and I’m looking for guys to make plays, it seems like I can levitate to that kid,” Schultz said of Wallace. “Brad Wallace makes plays. That’s what he does.”
P. Wee Sanders had 1- and 10-yard touchdown runs for River Ridge during the second half.
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473
mwochnick@theolympian.com
