On the first play from scrimmage in the 116th Swamp Cup on Friday, the W.F. West football dipped into its bag of tricks and came out with a reverse to Carson White, who came up firing downfield. It didn’t work.
Two plays later, the Bearcats tried an inside reverse in another bit of misdirection. They fumbled the exchange, barely keeping possession.
Toward the end of the first half, the hosts turned to the “Dream Team” package they had started off last year’s blowout of Centralia with, but lineman Andrew Penland went backwards on his two rare carries.
The glitzy plays didn’t land for W.F. West on Friday.
It didn’t matter.
That first possession settled into an eight-play grinder that ended in six points. After the lineman couldn’t get into the end zone, they let him go back to the trenches and pave the way for a tailback who did. And for the entire four quarters Friday at Bearcat Stadium, W.F. West simply outclassed Centralia in a 49-0 blowout.
And the Swamp Man will stay in Chehalis, wearing that white helmet of his, for a 15th straight year.
“It means everything to our school, our student section, just us as players always having that rivalry since we grew up,” said W.F. West quarterback Gage Brumfield, who was two years old the last time Centralia won a Swamp Cup. “This is always a fun game for us, and always a way for us to go and show what we can do.”
The Bearcats (5-3, 4-1 2A EvCo) outgained the Tigers (1-7, 0-5 2A EvCo) 502-15, after racking up 357 yards in the first half. Centralia managed just three first downs all game — all three on penalties — while the W.F. West offense found the end zone on seven of its nine drives.
Brumfield finished his first Swamp Cup as a starting quarterback with a 15-for-25 line — that was marred by a handful of drops by his receivers early — for 285 yards and three touchdowns, and added a 30-yard touchdown run in the first half.
Connor Coleman posted six catches for 158 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the Bearcats, going over 200 total yards with rushing and return yards worked in. Carson White had four receptions for 64 yards, and Tucker Land brought in the first touchdown of the day on a 27-yard catch-and-run on the hosts’ first drive.
“It was mostly just us getting more comfortable with each other,” Brumfield said. “We’ve been struggling with that, and I think we’re getting good at it now. We’re finally connecting, and I’m figuring out where to put the ball. They’re becoming a real receiving corps, and our matchups are getting better.”
After missing on the opening trick play and nearly losing the ball a play later, W.F. West settled in on the ground for a sustained eight-play, 72-yard drive that ended in six points. After Centralia went three-and-out and shanked a punt, the Bearcats needed just two more plays to go 37 yards and make it 14-0.
After another stop, they went 76 yards in 13 plays, and Beau Guyette plunged in on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line to go up three scores.
Stepping into the starting tailback role for the first time, Guyette led the Bearcats with 65 yards, and would score again before the night was done.
“He got tasked with being that dude back there, and I thought he ran hard and great tonight,” WFW coach Dan Hill said.
That would be plenty for the W.F. West defense to work with. On Centralia’s second possession, quarterback Terrell Sanders hit Landon Jenkins, who broke a tackle and ran 59 yards for a touchdown, only to have it called back for a hold.
The Bearcats would keep Jenkins without a catch until Centralia’s final offensive drive in the fourth quarter, holding the Tigers’ leading receiver to 3 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, the W.F. West front held Centralia to minus-5 rushing yards thanks to sacks and a pair of fumbled snaps recovered behind the line of scrimmage. In the second quarter, Kellen Rooklidge — who led the Tigers with 24 rushing yards — picked up 14 to turn third-and-31 into fourth-and-17, but that was the only Centralia run to go longer than 5 yards.
“I’m really proud of the defense and the way they played,” Hill said. “They played lights-out, and it was pretty darn good for them.”
The Bearcats went into halftime up 35-0, thanks to a 25-yard touchdown from Brumfield to Coleman on the final play of the second quarter. Coming out of the break, Centralia went three-and-out, and a 37-yard pass from Brumfield to Coleman and three Guyette runs got W.F. West back in the end zone, starting the running clock with over 20 minutes left of gametime.
It’s the fourth consecutive Swamp Cup to reach a running clock, and the sixth shutout over in the Bearcats’ current 15-year streak of rivalry wins.
For Centralia, the loss marks the end of a season that saw the Tigers overcome a late coaching change and break a two-year losing streak. They’ll graduate 14 seniors, including Jenkins and Dustin Ingles, who led them Friday with three catches for 17 yards.
“Our focus, as we said Week 1, was trying to get better each week,” Centralia coach Jon Rooklidge said. “We’ve had some tough times, and our goal was progress. And we made progress.”
W.F. West, meanwhile, continues its fall into the postseason, with a home crossover game next weekend against the No. 3 team from the 2A Greater St. Helens League. The Bearcats’ exact opponent is still up in the air; Ridgefield, Washougal and Hudson’s Bay are all tied for second in the GSHL, and will play a three-way tiebreaker on Monday to determine their final order.
“The longer these guys keep playing, the better we’re going to keep getting,” Hill said. “Our ceiling is still so much above our heads right now. I don’t think our team fully understands that, but we still have a lot of room where we can get better, and I’m really excited about the direction and our opportunities moving forward.”
