Once again dominating the line of scrimmage and getting off to a quick start, the No. 4 W.F. West football team defeated Rochester at home in Chehalis Friday night, 42-0.
After breaking an over-decade long losing streak to Tumwater last week in a huge league victory, the focus for the Bearcats this week was on quickly moving on to an upstart Warriors squad this week.
“That was our talk all week long,” Bearcats coach Dan Hill said. “Championship teams, they still come out and execute and don’t have mental mistakes and finish ballgames how we’re supposed to. That’s what we preached this week and what we stressed.
“We take a 1-0 mentality goal every week. We were able to do that, our boys played hard tonight.”
The Bearcats stifled the Warriors, holding them to 113 total yards and a goose egg on the scoreboard. On offense, W.F. West unleashed its passing attack, with Gavin Fugate connecting on three touchdown passes in the first half to lead the way — with two going to Gage Brumfield and his first going to Cody Pennington.
After throwing it all over the field for scores in the first half, the Bearcats turned to Tucker Land and the ground game in the second half, as the sophomore bulldozed his way to two touchdowns and 91 yards for the game.
“It was a tale of two halves there,” Hill said. “With how Rochester was defending us, we had an idea we were gonna be able to throw, then they changed coverages on us so we wanted to come out and run in the second half.”
Land capitalized, and carried the offense to two more scores.
“Boy, when Tucker gets north and south he's a good runningback,” Hill said.
Fugate had 277 passing yards with three first half scores, and a touchdown on the ground, and Brumfield caught six passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
Rochester was led offensively by Tate Quarnstrom, who threw for 77 yards on 8 of 11 passing.
The Bearcats will take on 1A Eatonville next week — which is fresh off an upset loss to Montesano — while the Warriors regroup against Aberdeen on the road.
