5 takeaways from undefeated Tumwater’s dominant win over Steilacoom
There will be no high school football state playoffs in this COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season, but Steilacoom and Tumwater met Saturday night for a replay of last season’s Class 2A state championship game.
Considered by most as the top two teams in 2A this season, the two powerhouse programs made sure to schedule each other for what many believe would have been the 2A title game had the season played out normally.
“I think in our eyes, and everybody else’s eyes, it was the 2A state championship,” T-Birds senior lineman Cooper Wall said. “They know it. We knew it. Everybody knows it. We prepared for it, and so did they.”
The T-Birds won last season’s meeting, 48-34, on a chilly night in December in 2019. How did the rematch play out?
The green machine kept rolling, and Tumwater again capped a perfect season with a win, running away from the Sentinels in the second half for a 50-12 victory at Tumwater District Stadium.
Here are five takeaways from the game:
1. These two South Sound programs are still the best of the best in 2A
Known as one of the most dominant programs in the state year in and year out, regardless of classification, Tumwater did what Tumwater does — score repeatedly on offense while playing lockdown defense.
The T-Birds’ signature rushing attack, paired with their punishing physicality on defense eventually wore Steilacoom down.
But, this game was as close as any Tumwater has played this season by the break.
Tumwater received the opening kickoff, and never trailed after Jack Jones scored on a 4-yard run eight plays later, but Steilacoom fired back.
After a quick three-and-out on their opening series, the Sentinels got the ball right back when Arizona signee D.J. Fryar picked off a Cody Whalen pass.
Though Steilacoom stalled in the red zone on that possession, and Tumwater answered with an 8-yard scoring pass from Whalen to tight end Austin Terry, the Sentinels cut the lead to one score again their following drive.
Western Kentucky signee Chance McDonald hit Cole Miller — who had a game-high 107 yards on two catches — for a 48-yard gain on the first play, and Central Washington signee Logan Brady then hauled in a 12-yard pass for a touchdown as the Sentinels cut the lead to 14-6.
Neither team scored on its final two possessions of the half. Tumwater turned the ball over on downs at the Steilacoom 6, and Turner Allen picked off McDonald in the end zone to end a promising drive.
Tumwater punted after a quick three-and-out, and Steilacoom ran the clock out on the half after McDonald was sacked twice in the final two minutes.
“We thought we should have gone in 14-14,” Steilacoom coach Colby Davies said. “We thought we let one slip away one possession.
“You go in, everyone’s feeling good, we feel like there’s stuff that we can do, and obviously we come out and it doesn’t turn out that way.”
Steilacoom went three-and-out on three consecutive incompletions to open the second half, and Tumwater quickly capitalized when Allen ripped off a 53-yard run that set up Whalen’s 1-yard scoring run.
The next possession seemed to completely shift the momentum in Tumwater’s favor. Two plays in, Wall corralled a pass tipped by John Judy inside the Steilacoom 10, and barreled into the end zone for the pick-six.
“The tipped pass was a big momentum change for us for sure,” Davies said.
It was suddenly 29-6, and the T-Birds never looked back.
Steilacoom punted on its next drive, and Tumwater capped a quick possession with the first of Allen’s three touchdowns on an 8-yard run.
The Sentinels scored their final touchdown moments later, when McDonald connected with Fryar on a 46-yard pass downfield that was tipped. Fryar made a magnificent juggling grab before trotting into the end zone.
Tumwater scored on each of its final two drives on runs of 3 and 11 yards by Allen.
The T-Birds combined for 451 total yards on offense while limiting Steilacoom to 256.
“Those players just got so excited and they worked their tails off, and they knew this was it for them,” Tumwater coach Bill Beattie said. “This was their last week. For those seniors, this was their last year of high school football.
“They really put on a show tonight.”
2. Tumwater hasn’t lost a game in more than two calendar years
The last time the T-Birds lost a football game? That would be back on Nov. 17, 2018, when a blocked extra point attempt in the fourth quarter resulted in a 28-27 loss to Lynden in the 2A quarterfinals.
That’s more than 850 days ago. Since that heartbreaking night in Bellingham? The T-Birds are unbeaten — a perfect 20-0 the past two seasons — and still the reigning 2A state champions.
“It says we’re consistent — and I hope it’s like that for years to come,” Allen said. “Our preparation has helped us get to this point.”
Tumwater is 40-5 since Beattie took over the program in place of Hall of Fame coach Sid Otton, who retired in 2016 with a state-record 394 wins across his 49-year career.
3. Tumwater’s defense locks down Steilacoom’s high-flying attack
The T-Birds defense seemed locked in from the first play of Steilacoom’s first possession, when Minnesota signee Jacob Schuster — The Olympian’s reigning All-Area player of the year — burst through the line and brought down McDonald for a 10-yard loss.
“We weren’t playing timid,” Wall said. “We came out and we knew we were going to be the best team on the field if we brought it every single play.”
That was the first of five sacks Tumwater’s defense recorded in the game, and the T-Birds for the most part contained McDonald, who was averaging 319.3 yards per game entering the day.
He finished 11-of-26 passing for 250 yards, the two touchdowns and the two interceptions. Most of Steilacoom’s yards through the air came on big plays to Fryar (the 46-yard TD) and Miller (48- and 59-yard catches).
“They figured out we couldn’t run the ball effectively, so at that point I’m asking Chance to do a lot, trying to throw it every down, and they know it’s a pass every time and they’re able to send those front four and put everyone else in coverage,” Davies said. “They did a good job. They schemed it up well. It was hard for us to pick up their blitzes.”
Beattie said his coaching staff had Tumwater’s defense well-prepared after last season’s meeting.
“I think what we learned from last time is we mixed stuff up this time, and we did some things a little bit different than what we did in the championship game,” he said. “We learned off that. ... Our front four with a little blitzing put a lot of pressure on him.”
4. Wall’s pick-six shifts the momentum
Wall’s trip to the end zone midway through the third quarter seemed to change the game, and ignited Tumwater’s barrage of touchdowns in the second half.
With a two-possession lead and Steilacoom backed up to its own 9-yard line, McDonald attempted two passes to open the drive. The first fell incomplete. The second fell right into Wall’s hands.
“John Judy put his big ol’ hands up, knocked that thing up in the air, I got lucky and caught it, spun around and dove in the end zone,” Wall said. “It was pretty cool. First one ever. That’s the way to go out, isn’t it?”
Even though this season was delayed, and shorter than usual, Wall appreciated the chance to have a senior season, and got to finish his career with a highlight against one of the state’s top teams.
“We’re all best friends, we’ve all been playing together since we were in second grade, so it was nice to finally come out and win and play together,” he said.
5. Turner Allen paces Tumwater’s offense with 200-plus yards
Allen is another of Tumwater’s seniors who ended his high school career on an impressive note.
The speedy tailback finished with a game-high 201 yards and the three second-half scores on 24 carries, added eight more yards on a pair of catches and hauled in that interception of McDonald in the end zone.
And, he did it all with a sore shoulder he injured this winter.
“What guts,” Beattie said. “ ... What a heck of a game for him.”
Like Tumwater’s other seniors, Allen came ready to play.
“All of the seniors were hyped up because this is the last one,” Allen said. “We tried to make it the best one we could. … I was happy. I expected us to do well, but not that well. We performed pretty well and prepared all week for it, so the outcome was great.”
Tumwater had two more big playmakers on offense Saturday in Whalen and Jones.
Whalen finished 11-of-18 passing for 121 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while also adding 77 rushing yards and a score on nine carries.
Jones tallied 51 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, and added a team-high 51 receiving yards on four catches.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 11:52 PM with the headline "5 takeaways from undefeated Tumwater’s dominant win over Steilacoom."
