Week 8: Takeaways from high school football in the Olympia area
Postseason quality shone more clearly during week eight of the high school football season. Here are five takeaways from this week’s action in the Olympia area.
THE TUMWATER DIFFERENCE: DEPTH AND CONTINUITY
Late in the 2018 season, with the Pioneer Bowl approaching, Tumwater High School’s football team was miffed with the local media.
Articles had appeared suggesting that Black Hills, which would indeed go on to beat the Thunderbirds and win the 2A Evergreen Conference championship, had leveled the playing surface with Tumwater for the long term.
The past two weeks, the unbeaten T-Birds (8-0) have written their own correction to the idea that any other local 2A team has become as established.
Eighth-ranked W.F. West had top-ranked Tumwater at home in a battle of unbeatens on Oct. 18. The Bearcats drove deep into the T-Birds’ red zone, intent on breaking a scoreless tie late in the first half. In rapid succession, the Bearcats lost their best running back to an ankle injury and their quarterback to a concussion. Final score: Tumwater 34-0.
Friday, Tumwater met its cross-freeway rivals, Black Hills, in the latest renewal of the Pioneer Bowl. Winners of a thrilling 22-17 battle a year ago but limited by graduation losses and injuries, the Wolves fell, 59-0.
Much is made of the T-Birds wing-T offense and how its difference from most modern attacks can baffle opponents, but enthusiasm for and execution of the scheme by youth football-playing kids from second grade on in Tumwater’s neighborhood is the key.
Nearly every team claims to play “(Fill In The Blank) football.” Tumwater players have grown up knowing exactly what “T-Bird football” is. They memorize what “ROTA” and “GATA” mean before they can recite the alphabet.
In the win over Black Hills (2-6), that depth was again in evidence as four different running backs scored touchdowns: Dylan Paine and Tyler Woods two each, Hunter Baker and Brian Le one apiece. For good measure, Austin Terry caught a touchdown pass and Ashton Paine reached the end zone on an interception return.
The T-Bird defense produced not one, but two safeties.
In previous games, three other running backs and an offensive lineman have rushed for touchdowns.
SENTINELS PROVE T-BIRDS FACE TOUGH COMPETITION FOR STATE TITLE
Tumwater has clearly been the class of 2A thus far.
The T-Birds beat two 3A schools and the equivalent of two 4A schools during the non-league season. They’ve breezed through the 2A EvCo, winning every game heading into next week’s finale at Centralia by at least 34 points, scoring 216 and allowing only 14.
But the post-season can be a minefield. Three of the other teams in this week’s Associated Press top five – Hockinson, Lynden and Archbishop Murphy – have ended Tumwater’s season in the past. The other, third-ranked Steilacoom, beat them in a non-league game as recently as 2016.
The Sentinels showed they wouldn’t mind making a deep playoff run of their own during a 55-20 Thursday night rout of River Ridge at South Sound Stadium.
Junior quarterback Chance McDonald passed for just over a quarter mile of yardage, 443, and set a Steilacoom record with seven touchdown passes.
On paper, the game shaped up as a potential upset, a resurgent River Ridge looking to claim a share of the SPSL Mountain Division lead with a win over the state’s third-ranked 2A team. Instead, the Sentinels (6-2) piled up 572 yards to down the Hawks (3-5) and clinch the division title.
McDonald’s scoring strikes went to three different receivers, each of whom caught a touchdown pass from beyond midfield.
“We saw we had favorable match-ups on the perimeter,” said Steilacoom coach Colby Davies. “We love throwing the ball, putting it up in the air and letting our athletes make plays. Our quarterback is starting to get into a groove. I think he feels very comfortable back there now. He’s making great decisions.”
Nationally recruited Sentinels’ wide out Emeka Egbuka lined up solo on one side of the field with multiple receivers arrayed on the opposite side. The Hawks couldn’t cover everyone.
Egbuka, seldom targeted in the early going, finished with just four catches, but he turned them into 158 yards and two touchdowns. Logan Brady was Steilacoom’s top receiver on the night, snagging eight passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns. Tre Horner caught just two balls, but both were good for long touchdowns, one from 32 and one from 64 yards.
“We knew that their safeties were going to overload Emeka’s side,” said McDonald. “That meant the guys on my back side, Tre and Logan, were going to be open all night. It’s an amazing blessing to come to practice every day and know I’ve got these guys to throw to.”
Though Steilacoom found ways to exploit the weaker points in River Ridge’s defense, Hawks’ coach Steve Schultz like the way his team adjusted over the course of the game.
“Our guys are so coachable. We’re going to get better from this,” he said. “The nice thing about playing a really good football team is it shows you where your weakest areas are.”
River Ridge totaled a respectable 304 yards in total offense, putting together two sustained second half scoring drives and getting anther productive night from running back Darion Brown, who again cracked triple digits with 116 yards on 26 carries.
But overall, the Hawks couldn’t match up with Steilacoom’s talent.
“Our guys were locked in and knew what we wanted to accomplish in every defensive set,” said Davies. “It was good to see guys fly around, under situations, make plays. Defense was questionable in our early losses, but we’ve been lights-out the last four or five weeks.”
The Hawks – particularly junior running back Darion Brown, who had a fourth straight triple digit night with 116 yards rushing – showed some grit of their own.
During the second quarter, Brown was slammed for a loss of three and appeared slow to get up. But after Steilacoom was penalized for a late hit, Brown took another handoff and sprinted 54 yards up the right sideline to get his team back within six.
“Darion’s a horse. He plays hard. He’s stronger than heck,” said Schultz.
BEARCATS FIND NEXT QUARTERBACK IN SWAMP CUP ROUT
W.F. West coach Dan Hill didn’t want any confusion. He wished senior quarterback Josiah Johnson had been able to play for the Bearcats in his final Swamp Cup.
But with Johnson still working through a concussion protocol after getting his bell rung against Tumwater, Hill watched the next best thing as his team routed Twin Cities rival Centralia, 49-14. His quarterback of the future proved he belongs in a big varsity game.
Seven days before, freshman Gavin Fugate had been standing on the sidelines, cheering on Johnson in a scoreless tie with Tumwater. Then, late in the first half, Johnson was sacked and diagnosed with a game-ending concussion.
Fugate was suddenly on the field in a battle of unbeatens in front of a sold out stadium, a rookie dropback passer trying to run a game plan designed for the veteran Johnson, as much a runner as he is a thrower.
Things didn’t go well. He completed just two of six passes for six yards, threw an interception and piled up some negative rushing yardage. Tumwater won, 34-0.
“Gavin got thrown into a storm there,” Hill said. “We had a game plan for that game no other quarterback on our team but Josiah could run.”
Fugate was ready for his first start, despite the drama of a rivalry game.
He threw a touchdown pass on his first attempt, completed his first five and finished 9-of-10 for 140 yards with three total TDs as the Bearcats turned away the Tigers.
“He stepped up big,” said another player put in an unfamiliar role, Leandre Gaines. “We couldn’t ask any more of him, he was almost perfect.”
Hill, who surprised Fugate by bringing him up to varsity as a freshman, wasn’t surprised.
“He ran our offense all spring and summer,” Hill said. “He knows his stuff and we had a really good week of practice.”
Gaines moved to running back from wide receiver and proved almost impossible for Centralia to tackle, gaining 178 yards on 14 carries and scoring three long touchdowns. A fourth Gaines score was called back because of a penalty.
The Bearcats (7-1, 3-1 in the 2A EvCo) took control of the game early, leading 28-0 before the first quarter was over.
“This was big,” said Gaines. “We were looking forward to this game a lot. We’ve got a lot of friends on Centralia. We also had a chip on our shoulder from losing to Tumwater. We wanted to prove we could come back after a downfall.”
In the other 2A Evergreen Conference game Friday, Aberdeen crushed Rochester, 50-6.
TIMBERLINE BEATS RIVAL NORTH THURSTON FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN
The Blazers (4-4) displayed a balanced offense in handing North Thurston (2-6) its sixth consecutive loss in yet another rivalry game at South Sound Stadium.
Noah Cunningham rushed for 88 yards and Jaden Gorman 79, while quarterback Adam Dafoe passed for 165 yards and a season-high four touchdowns. Max Aunese, who totaled four receptions for 85 yards, grabbed scoring tosses of 16 and 45 yards from Dafoe in the first quarter and Timberline never looked back.
Nhino Denis and Cunningham caught the other TD passes while Gorman rushed for a score.
Jase Marcott and Zach Porter rushed for the Rams’ touchdowns.
YELM WINS BIG BUT PENINSULA CLAIMS 3A SSC TITLE
Despite a 31-28 loss to Peninsula last week, Yelm went into Friday night’s action with a plausible route to the 3A South Sound Conference championship.
If Gig Harbor – favored by a least one computer ranking system – beat Peninsula in the annual Fish Bowl rivalry game and Yelm held serve in its final two league games, the Tornados could have been tri-champions and claimed the SSC’s top seed into the playoffs.
Didn’t happen.
Yelm did its part, thrashing visiting Shelton, 71-0, but the Seahawks made a mockery of modern predictive technology, defying the computer with a 42-3 pounding of the Tides. Yelm will likely get the second seed.
Ben Hoffmann threw three touchdown passes – two to Anthony Chipres, two to Sylas Franklin – against the Highclimbers. Chipres, Carson Amendt and Kyler Ronquillo, and Sean Rohwedder ran for scores and Ronquillo added a fumble return for a defensive touchdown.
Contuining the defensive fireworks, Auzzie Schaler ran an interception back 24 yards for a pick six and the Tornados produced two safeties.
In other games involving other area teams, Olympia crushed South Kitsap on the road 49-6; Tristan Redman passed for 140 yards as Capital beat Central Kitsap, 14-8; Montesano beat Tenino, 55-0; Mike Green threw three touchdown passes as Rainier routed Morton White Pass on the road, 57-8, and Fort Vancouver got off the schneid with a 32-22 defeat of Northwest Christian.
This story was originally published October 26, 2019 at 9:59 AM.