Daniel Hinkle, the Thunderbirds’ senior quarterback, was escorted off the field, suffering a possible dislocated right shoulder after a collision with a trio of defenders.
Tumwater coach Sid Otton had a difficult decision to make: Pull one of his starting skilled position players to fill in or put in his green sophomore signal caller.
Otton elected to utilize both scenarios, with each proving highly successful.
Zach Wimberly scored five times, sophomore quarterback Jayden Croft threw a touchdown pass and the T-Birds thumped visiting Chehalis, 42-7, in a key Evergreen Conference opener Friday at Tumwater District Stadium.
“It’s tough seeing your starting senior quarterback go down,” said Otton. “We’re pretty light at quarterback. Good thing we had (Wimberly) in there. We just put in some formations with him recently. I’m glad its something we had worked on.”
Wimberly, celebrating his 18th birthday Friday, rushed for four touchdowns and caught another score in the romp as Tumwater improved to 2-1 overall.
Wimberly stepped in as quarterback the play after Hinkle went down, directing Tumwater’s variation of the wildcat offense.
The converted tight end causally took his first snap, zipped through the middle of the line and raced 59 yards for a score.
“Chehalis has a great defense. I was very surprised when I got through the line untouched,” said Wimberly, who finished with 113 rushing yards on six carries.
Next it was Croft’s turn. The sophomore calmly moved the T-Birds down the field on Tumwater’s next possession, capping it with a 34-yard strike to Wimberly.
“I was shaking when I got in there,” said Croft, Otton’s grandson. “I was nervous, but once we got a few plays in I started to get comfortable.”
Tumwater added an 8-yard touchdown run from Wimberly and a 17-yard TD run from Andrew Brown, who ran for 112 yards on nine carries, to jump out to a 28-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Leading 28-7 at the half, Tumwater received two more Wimberly scores on the ground in the third quarter.
Chehalis quarterback Mitch Gueller threw for 172 yards with a touchdown and an interception on 14-of-25 accuracy.
Tumwater celebrated the school’s 50th anniversary during halftime with players from the T-Birds’ first football team of 1961 honored.
