T-Birds shake off early nerves, beat Monarchs for state berth

For being known as Tumwater’s running quarterback, Noah Andrews, bad hand and all, looked pretty comfortable throwing the football.

Andrews, despite having a fractured knuckle on his non-throwing hand, highlighted a big second quarter for the Thunderbirds, tossing a 57-yard touchdown to Griffin Shea on a halfback pass as undefeated Tumwater opened up the postseason by shutting out visiting Mark Morris, 45-0, in a Class 2A Southwest District 4 state play-in game on Friday.

The T-Birds, who have won 47 out of their past 50 games, advance to the state tournament where they will host a first round contest against Franklin Pierce (6-4), who defeated Foster, 29-12, on Friday.

Andrews did a little bit of everything for the T-Birds, also scoring on a 3-yard run and providing some big plays on defense to help Tumwater improve to 10-0. Mark Morris fell to 3-7.

But it was the junior’s touchdown pass to a wide open Shea on the final play of the first half that brought the crowd at Tumwater District Stadium to its feet.

“I was just hoping I had enough on the pass to get it to Griff,” said Andrews, who steps in for starting quarterback Spencer Dowers on occasion, about his TD pass. “He was pretty open. Today, though, was all about the O-lineman. We couldn’t do anything without them.”

Dowers, who has yet to throw an interception this season, got into the passing frenzy as well, throwing TD passes of 12 and 28 yards to sure-handed junior tight end Cade Otton.

“We had some nerves in that first quarter,” Dowers said. “We’ve been looking forward to the playoffs starting for a while, but it took us a bit to get going. Once we were able to settle down everything felt really comfortable out there.”

After a scoreless first quarter, which saw the T-Birds fumble on their opening possession and turn the ball over on downs at the Monarchs 5, Tumwater scored three touchdowns and added a safety to post a 24-0 lead at the intermission.

Following the safety, Dowers connected with Otton on their first touchdown pass.

A 1-yard TD run by Zach Jones pushed the advantage to 16-0 before Andrews took over, first teaming up with Shea on their big scoring play then punching in the 2-point conversation.

The T-Birds opened the second half with a quick four-play scoring drive. Andrews had a pair of long runs and scored from 3 yards out.

Jones closed out the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, resulting in the running clock.

W.F. West 31, at Ridgefield 30 (3 OT): The Spudders decided to go for the victory in the third overtime, but Jalen Williams was stopped inches short of the goal line on a sweep two-point conversion run, and the Bearcats rallied for the road victory.

With 8:47 to go in the third quarter, the Bearcats (6-4) trailed 17-0.

But quarterback Elijah Johnson finally got W.F. West’s offense going with a 1-yard touchdown run, and a 44-yard scoring strike to Austin Emery over the next six minutes.

W.F. West tied it at 17-17 on Cory Davis’ 26-yard field goal with 6:46 remaining.

The Bearcats grabbed a 31-30 lead in the third overtime on Johnson’s third rushing touchdown of the game, this time on a 1-yard sneak. The Spudders (8-2) scored on their first play of the third overtime — a Williams’ 10-yard scamper — but their bid to win fell short.

At Hockinson 54, Centralia 14: Canon Racanelli tossed six touchdown passes, with half going to Cameron Loos, and the 2A Greater St. Helens League champions rolled to a victory at Battle Ground High School.

His 5-yard scoring strike to Loos with 3:43 to go in the first half gave the sixth-ranked Hawks a 34-7 lead.

Joey Aliff threw a 30-yard pass to Riley Christianson, and Dylan Ferrians had a 6-yard run to account for the Tigers’ touchdowns.

CLASS 2B DISTRICTS

At Toledo 55, Rainier 34: The No. 5 Indians scored 41 first-quarter points, and took a 20-0 lead before Rainier touched the football, and the 2B Central League champions won big at Tiger Stadium.

Toledo recovered two onside kicks, and scored its third touchdown of the game on Dalton Yoder’s 60-yard touchdown strike with 9:04 remaining in the first quarter.

Yoder threw a pair of touchdown passes, ran for two more scored, and returned a fumble 47 yards for a touchdown.

Rainier ended up finishing with 303 total yards, with 249 coming on the ground. Ian Russell scored two touchdowns (41, 6) for the Mountaineers.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "T-Birds shake off early nerves, beat Monarchs for state berth."