5 takeaways from the eighth week of football in Thurston County and beyond

One head-to-head rivalry showdown for a league championship is in the books, another is still ahead.

Here are five takeaways from the eighth week of high school football in Thurston County and beyond.

1. Black Hills win hints at long-term parity with T-Birds

Black Hills’ 22-17 victory over second-ranked Tumwater on Friday night in the annual Pioneer Bowl rivalry game meant a lot of tangible things.

▪ The seventh-ranked Wolves (8-0) guaranteed themselves a piece of the Class 2A Evergreen Conference championship for the first time, with only last-place Rochester standing in the way of an undefeated record in conference.

Black Hills came into existence in 1997, as a member of the 3A Pacific-9 Conference, but never won that league, either.

▪ The longest drought in Pioneer Bowl history came to an end. Black Hills’ most recent win before Friday came in 2009, a span of eight games. The Wolves have won only four of the 20 meetings.

▪ Tumwater’s 2A EvCo winning streak of 35 games, dating back to its 19-7 loss to Black Hills in 2009, ended. The T-Birds also lost to W.F. West, which won the 2A EvCo title, that season.

But there were some inferences to make from the cold, hard facts as well.

Both teams came into the Pioneer Bowl offensively challenged. Tumwater (7-1) was absent leading rusher Dylan Paine, who tore his ACL three weeks ago at Rochester.

Black Hills was led by a sophomore quarterback, Jaden Cote, making only his third start after senior Ethan Loveless’ elbow woes flared up again.

The Wolves seemed to handle the adversity better.

Cote completed 9 of 16 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns, though he threw two interceptions. Having seen action only against Centralia and Aberdeen, meeting Tumwater was his first chance on a big stage.

“He’s played beyond his years,” Black Hills coach Kirk Stevens said. “He stayed locked in and focused all season long. When it was his turn, he stepped right in and took over.”

Meanwhile, Loveless moved to wide receiver and caught four passes for 86 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown from Cote he called “probably the most exciting moment of my football career.”

Even with injuries, Black Hills showed more depth than the last time it beat Tumwater.

In the 2009 game, generational talent Cody Peterson — who would go on to play linebacker at Navy — rushed for 199 yards.

This time, Preston Lee, Taylor Simmons, Jaden Touissant and Zach Loveless all had key carries, but none totaled more than 53 yards.

Without Paine, Tumwater’s vaunted running game barely passed 100 yards, the vast majority coming from junior Hunter Baker’s hard-fought 77 yards on 18 carries.

At halftime, the T-Birds had just 20 yards and had been tackled for losses eight times, including a taking a safety.

New Black Hills defensive coordinator J.D. Johnson — Capital’s former coach — and strength coach Dave Claridge have been consistently praised this season.

“We stayed disciplined,” Stevens said. “Sometimes we’ve been able to do it, but not for long periods of time. This year we’ve been able to do it from start to finish. J.D. was locked in and on top of it all night.”

The Wolves also showed stamina.

Stevens has been part of the Black Hills program since the first Pioneer Bowl in 1997, but had yet to win one as head coach.

“We’ve been close a couple of times, but we couldn’t go four quarters,” he said. “With the buy-in we’ve had from the kids for our weight program, we knew we could go four quarters (Friday). There wasn’t going to be any backing up.”

The Wolves’ success looks sustainable with Cote available for two more seasons and juniors such as fullback Zach Loveless and wide receiver Nic Bovenkamp returning.

Tumwater’s veteran coaching staff can be counted on to break down just what Black Hills did to stop the T-Birds. Though Tumwater has run its trademark wing-T offense since legendary coach Sid Otton switched over from the twin veer in the 1980s, it has always been a work in progress.

This season the T-Birds have built their record on a rarely-seen version of the offense, running it with the quarterback taking a shotgun snap, something coach Bill Beattie has seen only one other team, a school in Michigan, do on video.

“The wing-T is built on deception. If we can’t have deception out of the shotgun, we can’t do it,” Beattie said earlier this week.

Tumwater’s staff will likely go back to the drawing board with a valuable resource at hand — Sid Otton.

“He’s around, he comes to every game,” Beattie said. “Any chance we can get him, we take advantage of his insights.”

2. Timberline and Yelm set up for 3A SSC showdown

Timberline has more rivals than you can count on the fingers of one hand.

The Blazers (6-2) have two crosstown Lacey foes in North Thurston and River Ridge that they dearly love to beat in any sport.

Over the years, in both the 3A Narrows and now the 3A South Sound Conference, they’ve staged bitter battles with Capital. Olympia borders Timberline’s attendance area to the west.

This week, though, the focus will be the school that borders that attendance area to the east and, more importantly, shares a 5-1 record in the 3A SSC with both the Blazers and Peninsula — No. 10 Yelm.

If Capital (5-3) upsets Peninsula (6-2) on the road, the Timberline-Yelm game will be for the league championship. If the Seahawks down the Cougars, the Blazers and Tornados (6-2) will play for a share of the title.

Yelm would grab the 3A SSC’s top seed into the playoffs with a win, since it beat Peninsula earlier, 42-21. Timberline lost the narrowest of games to the Seahawks, 28-27 in overtime.

Both Timberline and Yelm left no doubt the significance of their game would still be there with blowout victories on Friday night.

Timberline thrashed one of those Lacey rivals — North Thurston — at their shared South Sound Stadium, 35-0.

As so often happens, senior quarterback Hunter Campau led the Blazers, both rushing and passing for more than 100 yards. He completed 7 of 11 passes for 103 yards while rushing for 165 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.

Jaden Gorman, who totaled 50 yards on six carries, scored on a 1-yard run and Nephi Vimoto opened the scoring with an 80-yard interception return.

Yelm, meanwhile, spoiled Shelton’s homecoming/senior night with a 49-6 rout.

Tornado quarterback Kyle Robinson opened the scoring with a pair of touchdown passes to Kodee Gifford, one for 48 yards, the other of 36. Carson Ammendt rushed for two touchdowns, Robinson one and Stephen Reyes one.

3. Bears snap six-game losing streak

Olympia hadn’t won since dropping Emerald Ridge on opening night back in August, but a strong offensive display against winless South Kitsap earned the Bears a 45-20 victory at Ingersoll Stadium.

A positive sign for the Bears: All but 15 of their points were scored by juniors.

Tyler Woods rushed for touchdowns of 32, 9 and 14 yards. Nathan Hermann threw two touchdown passes, one to Will Anderson from 60 yards out and another to senior Mason Beckley from 40 yards. Anderson caught a second touchdown, a 30-yarder from Jason Dougherty while senior Kenneth Dinyuy – who also kicked six PATs — rounded out the scoring with a 21-yard field goal.

The Bears play at Curtis on Friday in their last regularly-scheduled game.

4. Hoquiam completes surprise run to 1A Evergreen title

For most of the season, rival Montesano was ranked higher in the statewide Associated Press poll than now fourth-ranked Hoquiam – until the Grizzlies pulled off a 37-25 victory over the now No. 8 Bulldogs last week.

This week, Hoquiam (8-0) knocked off previously unbeaten Sequim in a non-league game while Montesano took the week off thanks to a forfeit by short-handed Tenino. But when Elma defeated Forks, 35-10, Friday night, the top seed from the 1A Evergreen Conference into the playoffs was assured the Grizzlies.

Against Sequim, quarterback Payton Quintanilla completed 12 of 20 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown while Antonio Garcia rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.

5. No playoffs for Rainier this year

A season after ending a 26-year absence from the state football playoffs, Rainier got off to its third consecutive 5-0 start and a ranked as high as fourth in the AP Class 2B poll.

But losses to Onalaska, Adna and, Friday night toMorton-White Pass followed. The eighth-ranked Mountaineers (5-3) will not be in the playoffs when they begin in two weeks.

At home and tied with the Timberwolves, 12-12, at the half, Rainier lost quarterback Zach Lofgren to injury in the second half. Morton-White Pass went onto a 26-12 victory that decided the fourth and final playoff spot from the Pacific League’s Mountain Division.

Rainier turned the ball over four times on lost fumbles.

Lofgren rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown on nine carries and also threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Cole Reise before departing.

The Mountaineers finish the season at No. 5 Napavine on Friday.

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 5:36 PM.