Bears win, but was it a moral defeat?

OLYMPIA – If there is no such thing as a bad win, the Olympia Bears pushed that theory to the limit Friday.

Olympia got nothing but trouble from perennial Narrows League also-ran Stadium, but managed to hold off a late Tigers surge to walk away with a 27-19 win at a packed Ingersoll Stadium.

The victory, however, wasn’t quite enough to put a smile on the face of Bears coach Bill Beattie.

He was looking for something a little more aesthetically pleasing from his squad.

“We’ve got a long way to go if we’re going to be a very good football team,” Beattie said. “We made way too many mistakes and I’m not taking anything away from Stadium, but as Olympia football goes we’ve got to take a look at ourselves.”

To be fair, these weren’t the Tigers of old that Olympia took on.

Stadium (2-4, 2-4) is better than its been in years, having won two games for the first time since 2000 and snapping a 27-game league losing streak three weeks ago.

Stadium certainly showed some fight late in the game after it fell behind 27-7 with just 7:05 left to play.

Quarterback Tyler Stumph orchestrated a couple of scoring drives that ended with touchdowns to Dominick Vizzare to make things much more respectable.

Stumph, a sophomore, completed 18 of 29 attempts for 263 yards and three touchdowns.

“We wanted to bring some belief to this program and show that we can win and make believers out of these kids,” said Stadium coach Jess Nelson, a 1996 Tumwater graduate. “Our kids just kept fighting and scoring. I was very pleased with our effort.”

Olympia, which did win the game if you’re confused by the tenor of the quotes, had too many penalties, too many turnovers and too many mistakes. There was one big, shining, bright spot however and that was Jordan Pine.

The senior running back had a whopping 34 carries for 255 yards and three touchdowns.

“We had to ride Jordan tonight and our offensive line played real good at times, but we just didn’t play like a veteran football team,” Beattie said.

Olympia quarterback Jared Mercer went just 2-for-6, but he made the passes he did complete count.

The senior completed his first pass of the game, a 25-yard strike to Numia Magalei, in a 3rd and 13 situation that set up his second and final completion of the night, a 1-yard touchdown pass to Sam Gauksheim.

There was a scary moment Friday when Stadium’s Kendall McNeil was upended during a kickoff return and landed on his head.

McNeil stayed on the ground for about 20 minutes and left via ambulance, but Nelson said the junior had feeling in his hands and feet and was able to move them.