Often in sports, people use this phrase: To be the man, you gotta beat the man.
Yes, Ric Flair’s catchphrase has become a cliché. But it will ring true on Saturday, when the sixth-seeded W.F. West Bearcats travel north to take on No. 2 Anacortes, the reigning 2A state champions, in a state semifinal at Oak Harbor High School.
“It’ll be a very challenging week for sure,” W.F. West coach Dan Hill said. “We definitely have our work cut out for us.”
Anacortes will be one of W.F. West’s toughest tests yet. Offensively, the Seahawks are led by three Division I athletes in the Beaner brothers and Rylin Lang.
Brock and Brady Beaner, a pair of Montana commits, have been all over the field.
Brock Beaner has been the lead back, rushing for nearly 1,000 yards and 18 touchdowns while also adding 190 yards and three touchdowns as a receiving threat out of the backfield.
While splitting time under center with Ryan Harrington, Brady Beaner has tallied nearly 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns through the air, and he’s also added 384 rushing yards and 323 receiving yards.
Rylin Lang, an Eastern Washington commit, has averaged over 16 yards per catch and tallied 658 yards and nine receiving touchdowns.
With those three leading the way, the Seahawks have scored at least 35 points in all but one game this season, averaging 49.7 points per game.
“They are very explosive offensively,” Hill said. “They can score very quickly.”
It’s a similar story to last week, though, when Franklin Pierce was averaging over 52 points per game before the W.F. West defense allowed just eight points in its quarterfinal win over the Cardinals.
Though Anacortes and Franklin Pierce run different offensive systems, Hill trusts the work that the Bearcats have put in will allow them to adjust accordingly.
“It’s a lot of fun to go from one extreme to the other,” Hill said. “Going back to the offseason, you mix things in … You try to get as many tools in our tool box throughout the 12 month period that we get, so that when these weeks come we have something we can fall back on.”
On the other side of the football, Hill’s focus is on the defensive line. As a team, the Seahawks have tallied 61 tackles for loss and 23 sacks in 12 games.
“There’s always five guys coming from somewhere,” Hill said. “They put a lot of faith in their skill guys on the back end and let the guys up front create chaos.”
Hill trusts his team to handle any chaos thrown their way Saturday, saying that this group of seniors has grown tremendously from the last time they played in a state semifinal two years ago.
“The accountability they put on each other and the trust that they have in one another, that’s probably what they draw on the most,” Hill said. “It’s been pretty electric and dynamite in the last month … The guys will be ready to go.”
