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Sparked by eight sacks on Vikings quarterbacks Rhys Gervais and Trevor Lyons, the Bears ended Puyallup’s season with a 38-21 victory at Ingersoll Stadium. The Bears (9-1) advance to the first round of the 4A state playoffs for the first time since 2008 and play the winner of today’s Heritage-Lake Stevens game next weekend in the round of 16.
“They just bottled them up,” Beattie said of the Vikings’ offense. “Our coaches did a great job of getting a good plan together, and the kids played with a lot of heart and determination. You can’t say enough about our defense.”
In addition to the eight sacks – five on Gervais, the Vikings’ starter, and three on Lyons, who saw time in the second half – Olympia’s defense held Puyallup to half its scoring average and made the Vikings’ run game nonexistent.
The Vikings (6-4) averaged nearly 40 points a game and had the South Puget Sound League’s top passer in Gervais with almost 2,000 yards passing and 21 TDs. And while Gervais and Lyons combined for 304 yards passing with two touchdowns – to Ryan McCarragher (17 yards) and Matt Becker (36), Olympia’s run defense held Puyallup to just 22 rushing yards on 11 carries.
“We all came together tonight,” senior linebacker Bentley Tran said.
Olympia senior running back Spenser Killman had 225 yards rushing on 30 carries and touchdown runs of 18, 12 and 5 yards.
The Bears held a 14-7 halftime advantage, and on their first second-half possession used a six-play, 80-yard drive capped off by a quarterback sneak by Trevor Houser for his second touchdown of the night to bump the lead to 21-7. Houser was effective with his arm, too, completing 8 of 13 passes for 124 yards.
Elliott Telling’s 8-yard run pulled the Vikings to within 21-14 with 4 minutes, 28 seconds left in the third quarter, but Puyallup was outscored 17-7 from that point forward.
“I’m so proud of this team for what they’ve done,” Beattie said. “We’re in the final 16. We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re happy tonight.”
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473
mwochnick@theolympian.com
