State football: Takeaways from Friday night’s first-round games for Olympia area teams
Tumwater moves on. Rainier is out. The end of the high school football season in the Olympia area nears. Here are five takeaways from Week 11 of the season.
FAMILIAR FOE ARCHBISHOP MURPHY UP NEXT FOR TUMWATER
It’s as if there’s a different, tougher league always waiting for Tumwater High School beyond the 2A Evergreen Conference, something akin to European soccer’s Champions League.
When the Thunderbirds win in the postseason, they beat some of the same teams. When they get knocked out of the playoffs, the same teams often inflict the pain. Prosser. Lynden. Squalicum.
Archbishop Murphy is a frequent name on the list.
Six times in the past nine years, the T-Birds have played the Wildcats during the state playoffs. Four times, Tumwater has prevailed, including a shocking 10-6 upset over a 2017 Murphy team led by current University of Washington cornerback Kyler Gordon.
That win vaulted the T-Birds into the state championship game in Bill Beattie’s first season as head coach.
On the other hand, the losses have stung. The year before, the Wildcats brought Gordon and a monstrous offensive line into Tumwater District Stadium and sent Washington’s all-time winningest coach, Sid Otton, into retirement with a 48-10 pounding.
Now, after the T-Birds ran away from visiting Franklin Pierce, 56-7, Friday night and the Wildcats shut out North Kitsap, 46-0, the teams will meet again during state. Tumwater will host next weekend but, as of Saturday morning, the exact day and kickoff time had not been set.
“We’re constantly focused on us. I know it sounds cliched, but we concentrate on what we can do to get better and keep working towards that,” said Beattie of how his team can translate routs of average teams into wins over stronger opponents. “Our measuring stick is ourselves, not other people.”
Coming off a mediocre season for them – 8-2 and a fourth-place finish in the Wesco Sky division – the Wildcats are seeded eighth, but there is almost no chance Tumwater will take them lightly, given the history between the schools.
“You’ve got to be ready for those guys, but we’re excited about the opportunity,” Beattie said.
Friday night’s win over the Cardinals was all Tumwater right from the outset. On the first possession of the game, the T-Birds went into the end zone on three straight fourth-down plays but had the first two called back via penalty before Jaylen Clay raced untouched around right end for a 25-yard touchdown.
A shanked punt on Franklin Pierce’s ensuing possession set Tumwater up with great field position, first and 10 at the Cardinal 38. Quarterback Cody Whalen hit a streaking Danny Goodburn up the left sideline on the first play, good for a 38-yard touchdown, and the rout was on.
Tumwater led 49-0 by halftime and the mercy clock began running as soon as the second half started.
Whalen completed 5-of-9 passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns – the other went to running back Dylan Paine on a second-quarter screen pass.
Paine led Tumwater rushers with 137 yards on 12 carries, including one 74-yard burst.
Ten T-Bird backs contributed to 343 yards of offense on the ground. Hunter Baker was next in total yards behind Paine with 76 on five carries, scoring two touchdowns. Jack Jones, Clay, Turner Allen and Tyler Woods all also scored.
“It’s great to have so many guys to go to, working hand in hand with our line,” said Whalen. “Teams never know what’s coming next.”
Senior quarterback Claudell Quinland was the Cardinals’ best source of offense, passing for 140 yards on a night when Franklin Pierce would rush for only six net yards. But he was 13-for-31 and allowed interceptions by Tumwater’s Gaven Murphy, Ryan Otton and Cooper Wall.
“Our defense has done a great job all year,” Beattie said. “Our defensive coaches had a great plan tonight and the kids were fantastic executing it. The defensive line creates pressure and then our defensive backs are in great spots. It’s a solid unit.”
‘SPECIAL’ SECOND-SEEDED SENTINELS REMAIN A THREAT IN 2A FIELD
Meanwhile, Tumwater’s closest rival for the 2A state championship – both geographically and in the seedings – easily moved on as well when second-seeded Steilacoom blew past Ridgefield, 45-21.
On the opening play of the game, Steilacoom’s De’Andre Napier took the opening kickoff and returned it for a touchdown. Before Ridgefield could even blink, Steilacoom held a 7-0 lead.
Few teams in the state are as dangerous on special teams as Steilacoom is.
“We rep special teams a lot,” said Steilacoom receiver Emeka Egbuka. “We believe it’s one of the key elements to winning a football game. You can have really big plays in there, onside kicks, returns, stuff like that. We rep it a lot and we really craft our technique.”
Of course, it helps when you have one of the country’s top athletes. Egbuka, considered a 5-star prospect by 247sports.com, makes teams that choose to punt the football his way look foolish — which he did on Friday night, returning a punt for a touchdown in the first quarter.
“I just get really excited when I see that ball coming,” Egbuka said.
Egbuka, who didn’t play in the second half of the blowout win, also racked up six catches for 107 yards and a touchdown and rushed twice for 12 yards and a touchdown.
That rushing touchdown came out of the Wildcat formation when Egbuka took the direct snap and ran it in from nine yards out, dragging three or four defenders with him into the end zone.
Defensively, with the starters in during the first half, Steilacoom held Ridgefield to a paltry two net rushing yards. Ridgefield running backs Hunter Abrams and Trey Knight managed just 16 yards on 12 carries in the first half.
The run defense is something that has gradually improved throughout the season for Steilacoom, which knew some adjustments needed to be made after a 56-47 loss to Lynden in a non-league game.
Most of the first round 2A games were played Saturday, but in other Friday play, Lakewood defeated Sequim – which had knocked out River Ridge in the district round – 38-12.
SSC CHAMP PENINSULA AND CAPITAL’S CONQUEROR OUT OF 3A
With 12th-seeded Yelm not playing its 3A state game at Kennewick until Saturday afternoon, fans turned their attention to a pair of teams that earlier surpassed local schools.
Peninsula, seeded ninth after going undefeated in league play to win the 3A South Sound Conference title, fell to eighth seed Mt. Spokane, 35-10, after a long drive to Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.
Kannon Katzer, who scored two touchdowns in the Wildcats’ first-round state loss to Timberline last year, was the story against the Seahawks, rushing 39 times for 303 yards and three touchdowns.
For Peninsula, quarterback Peyton Bice completed 21 of 35 passes for 211 yards while Sean Skladany, who scored the Seahawks’ only touchdown, rushed for 53 yards on 19 carries.
Meanwhile, 11th-seeded Prairie, which had eliminated Capital in a wild 73-35 game in districts, played and lost an overtime game, 37-30, at sixth-seeded Marysville-Pilchuck.
With time running out in regulation, the Tomahawks designated Edgar Martinez to hit a 39-yard field goal that tied the game at 30. A Dylan Carson rushing touchdown and a defensive stop made the difference in overtime.
There were four lead changes after the end of the third quarter.
Marysville-Pilchuck advances to meet third-seeded Lincoln, a 49-28 winner over Seattle Prep, while Mt. Spokane will play top-seeded O’Dea, which shut out Kelso, 35-0. Another quarterfinal will feature traditional powers Bellevue and Eastside Catholic squaring off.
In addition to the Yelm-Kennewick game, Garfield and Bethel were slated to play Saturday.
TWO-TIME DEFENDING CHAMPS END RAINIER’S SEASON
Third-seeded Kalama, winner of the last two 2B championship games, roared out to a 38-0 halftime lead and coasted to a 46-14 home victory over Rainier.
The Mountaineers two touchdowns put an exclamation point on a great career and sparked hope for the future of first-year coach Andy Bartell’s team.
First, senior Brody Klein, as versatile a player as Rainier has had for the past four years, highlighted a 14-carry, 85-yard night with a five-yard scoring dash.
Then, junior quarterback Mike Green threw 11 yards to freshman Jake Jeske for a touchdown and followed up with a two-point conversion pass to Jeske.
Kalama quarterback Jackson Esary was the star, completing 14 of 20 passes for 229 yards and five touchdowns to four different receivers. The Chinooks will host the winner of Saturday’s game between Friday Harbor and Lake Roosevelt.
TUMWATER, YELM GRAB TOP HONORS ON ALL-LEAGUE TEAMS
Unsurprisingly, the state’s top-ranked 2A team, Tumwater, snagged three of the top four honors when the Evergreen Conference’s all-league team was announced.
The T-Bird coaches were selected as the staff of the year.
Two-way lineman Jacob Schuster, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound junior who both clears holes for Tumwater’s deep corps of running backs and stops opponents, was chosen the league’s overall Most Valuable Player.
One of those running backs, 5-10, 190-pound senior Dylan Paine, gained Offensive MVP. Leandre Gaines, a do-everything runner, receiver and punter for W.F. West, got Defensive MVP for his work as 6-2, 220-pound senior linebacker.
In the 3A South Sound Conference, Yelm quarterback Ben Hoffman, a threat both passing and running, was selected Offensive MVP.
Bradley McGannon was selected Lineman of the Year. The Tornados’ 6-3, 255-pound two-way player also became a short-yardage running back, scoring seven touchdowns prior to Saturday’s state playoff opener at Kennewick.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 10:21 AM.