3 Mid-Columbia teams seize WA football titles. Insights into their victories

Four Mid-Columbia region football teams went to Seattle this past weekend and three of them won state championships.

Kyle Cairns’ Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars held off top seed Toledo 47-34 on Saturday in the 2B state championship game at Husky Stadium.

“We actually talked about this before the game,” said Cairns. “But we had beaten them (13-10) last year in the playoffs. Toledo was making this game about getting back at us, about making this game about us. We’re doing this for us. We care about us.”

Meanwhile, Royal beat Cashmere 21-20 on Friday afternoon in the 1A state final.

That gives Wiley Allred’s Knights their ninth state championship out of the last 10 1A state title games.

“We’re pretty ecstatic, pretty happy,” said Allred in a phone call on Saturday. “We talked to the seniors a bit. Especially to those who didn’t get to play much this year but were at practice every day. They were the glue to this team.”

Finally, Liberty Christian of Richland lost the 1B state title game for the second consecutive year, falling Friday afternoon 26-14 to DeSales of Walla Walla.

“I told our guys, ‘Hey, I’m proud of you,’” said Patriots head coach Craig Lukins. “The senior class, they went 45-5 over their four years. Made the finals twice. Made the semifinals once, and made the quarterfinals once.”

Irish head coach Josh Richard’s team, led by junior quarterback Cohen Wood’s 129 rushing yards (and two touchdowns), finishes the season with a 14-0 record.

State 2B title game

Just like the semifinal game against Adna, Tri-Cities Prep found itself down 14-0 early in the championship game Saturday against top-seeded Toledo.

But for the second consecutive week, the Jaguars rallied in the second half to win their first 11-man state title.

Jaguars quarterback Jarrett Garza found Aiden McCabe for a 59-yard touchdown pass to get the team back in the game, now just trailing 14-7.

“The best part about that is we needed a specific play,” said Cairns. “I was looking at film on the bus on the way to Seattle, and I noticed that Adna pulled off a long TD pass against Toledo in their (regular-season) game. We added it to a play list this past week. We had the Adna pass play and the Adna run play.

“We needed a special play right then,” said Cairns. “It kind of carried some momentum over to us. It allowed us to movie the ball more.”

By opening up the play book, Prep was able to keep the Riverhawks defense off balance. And then the Jags took advantage of Toledo mistakes.

Toledo, which led 20-14 at halftime, had a case of the fumbles to start the third quarter. The Riverhawks gave away the football in each of their first two series in the second half.

Each time, the Jags turned it into a touchdown.

Jake Sherfey scored on a 3-yard touchdown run, which tied the game at 20-20.

The second fumble resulted in Garza’s 3-yard TD strike to Tilden Shumway in the third quarter, giving Prep the lead for good at 27-20.

On the ensuing kickoff, the ball was touched by a Toledo player, who failed to get on the ball.

The Jaguars recovered, and a few plays later, Jameson Elliott scored on a 1-yard run and a 34-20.

“It was like,” said Cairns, “there was a leprechaun in the stadium.”

The Riverhawks offense after that straightened out.

But Prep’s two-score lead was enough to hang on for the win.

Perhaps the biggest play came from Prep senior defensive back Karter Gadish, who intercepted Toledo quarterback Eli Weeks and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown and a 47-34 lead with just 2:38 to play.

“It was an incredible moment for Karter, taking the ball back for a touchdown at that moment in the game,” said Cairns.

Gadish also recovered a fumble, and he forced another.

“He was,” added Cairns, “the MVP of the game.”

The victory gives Tri-Cities Prep a perfect 14-0 record to end the season. The Jaguars previously won the state 1B (8-man) title in 2009, when they beat Lummi 80-40 in the Tacoma Dome.

Toledo ends its season at 12-1.

State 1A title game

It was an all-1A South Central Athletic Conference final that everyone expected to be a tight contest.

After all, Royal beat Cashmere 21-15 in late September in overtime.

This second go-round was also tight.

Royal scored first when Grant Wardenaar connected with Anderson Brown on an 11-yard touchdown pass with 2:18 to play in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.

Cashmere answered two possessions later, as Rylan Hatmaker completed a 13-yard TD pass to David Odenrider with 8:34 remaining in the second quarter. But trying to go for a 2-point conversion, the Bulldogs were stuffed on a run, and Royal kept the lead at 7-6.

Immediately after that touchdown, the Knights responded when Wardenaar hit Dax Jenks out of the backfield, and the senior running back converted it into a 71-yard scoring play for a 14-6.

The game stayed that way into the third quarter, until Cashmere knotted the game at 14-14.

Jacoby Tait scored on a 2-yard run, followed by Hatmaker punching in the 2-point conversion on a run with 3:34 left in the third quarter.

Again Allred’s Knights immediately responded on the following series.

Jenks rushed in from 21 yards out with just 43 seconds left in the third, giving Royal a 21-14 lead.

Perhaps the game’s biggest play came in the fourth quarter.

Cashmere looked like it was going to score, as Hatmaker connected with a receiver on a pass at the 5.

But Royal’s Brown ripped the ball out of the receiver’s hands for a turnover.

“(Anderson) saw the kid had opened up to him, trying to get extra yardage,” said Allred. “He ripped the ball out of his hands. He’s that kind of athlete.”

The Bulldogs had one chance left to tie the game.

With the ball at its own 8, Cashmere marched 92 yards on 10 plays, culminating on Hatmaker bulling into the end zone from 3 yards out with just 18 seconds remaining.

Cashmere coach Bryan Bremer and his staff opted to go for the 2-point conversion and the win.

But the play ended with an incomplete pass, and Royal earned another state championship.

Hatmaker was 22 for 30 for 205 yards passing and a score, while also rushing 14 times for 73 yards and two scores.

Wardenaaar led Royal with 146 yards passing with 2 TD pass.

Jenks rushed 12 times for 143 yards and a score, and he caught 2 passes for 101 yards and another TD.

“We knew he was an up and coming kid a year ago,” said Allred. “He’s really a young junior.”

But Jenks was injured at the start of the season, and he didn’t get into a game until Week 3. Even then, Allred said Jenks’ legs weren’t very strong.

That is, until the last month. He’s been getting more and more touches.

“Last week (against Lynden Christian in the semifinals), he did well (rushing 22 times for 226 yards and five touchdowns),” said Allred.

Class 1B title game

After giving up 14 points in the first quarter, DeSales scored 26 unanswered points en route to the championship.

For LC, the key was turning the ball over six times.

Still, the Patriots were never out of the game.

“We had no business being in that game, but we were,” said Lukins. “That’s how good our defense was. Honestly our defense played amazing.”

Senior quarterback Trenten Ralston tossed two touchdown passes in the first quarter — 21 yards to Eli Isley, and 2 yards to Dax Mercure.

That gave the Patriots a 14-0 lead after one quarter.

Then Irish linebacker Caleb Bingham stepped up in the second quarter.

With LC knocking on the door for a three-score lead, Bingham stepped in front of an LC receiver to intercept a Ralston pass. He then rumbled 100 yards for a touchdown.

Three minutes later, after recovering an LC fumble, DeSales quarterback Cohen Wood scored from 1 yard out.

Bingham would add a 2-yard TD run in the third for an 18-14 DeSales lead.

Wood finished off the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 34-yard TD run. Bingham added a 2-point conversion run for the final 26-14 victory.

“DeSales just played a much cleaner game than we did,” said Lukins, who said the Patriots lose 12 seniors to graduation in June.

But, he added, LC has 16 juniors this season.

“We do bring back our three starting offensive linemen, our tight end, our defensive end,” said Lukins. “We’ll be back in the weight room on Monday morning.”

Liberty Christian finished the season 11-2, with both losses to DeSales.

Other title games

• Senior Lance McGee — who transferred in the offseason to Sumner — rushed 46 times for 368 yards, scoring six touchdowns (including the game-winner in overtime) to lead the Spartans over Lake Stevens 41-35 in the 4A title game Saturday night. It was Sumner’s second consecutive 4A state title.

• O’Dea won its second straight 3A title, beating Mount Tahoma 21-14 on Friday night. Hutton Leverett connected with Owen Brustkern on a 30–yard TD pass late in the game for the winning score.

• Two standout receivers headed for Division I schools — Henry Gabalis (Arizona) and Jack Sievers (Wisconsin) — each caught a TD pass as Archbishop Murphy defeated Tumwater 35-20 in the 2A state title game on Saturday afternoon.

-Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.