When Tumwater coach William Garrow and his assistant coaches fired up the film this week, two Sehome Mariners jumped off the screen.
“I think those two players are pretty special,” Garrow said. “They’re talented players.”
Sehome quarterback Nolan Wright and wide receiver Andre Watson have been connecting all season long, and Tumwater will have to figure out how to slow them down in their quarterfinal matchup on Saturday.
The Tumwater defense has been nearly perfect over the last six weeks, as the T-Birds have allowed just eight points and posted five shutouts. Wright, Watson, and the rest of the Sehome offense will be their biggest challenge yet.
Both Wright and Watson earned first-team All-NWC honors. Wright has tallied over 3,000 total yards from offense and has scored 39 total touchdowns, while Watson caught 90 passes for over 1,500 yards and 23 touchdowns.
In their Round of 32 win over Chief Sealth, both Wright and Watson broke records. Wright threw for a school record 467 yards, while Watson caught 15 passes for 345 yards (a Whatcom County record) and four touchdowns.
“The two of them are dynamic players,” Garrow said.
When asked how the Sehome offense compares to teams that Tumwater has faced, Garrow brought up Puyallup in Week 1, saying that the Mariners and Vikings have similar athletes.
W.F. West was also briefly brought up, but Sehome’s quickness and speed jumped out to Garrow and his assistants.
“(Wright) is very shifty,” Garrow said. “He can create space and time, and receivers are really disciplined in coming back to the football … They’re really good at extending plays on offense.”
The Mariners are also not afraid to get their tight ends involved, and they rarely run the football by design.
On the other side of the ball, Garrow was impressed by the Mariners depth at defensive tackle, a unit led by second-team All-NWC Finn Seitz Gregorie. Watson can also play DB at times, and Hudson Neff earned first-team all-league honors at that position.
Sehome’s 8-3 record and fourth-place finish in league play isn’t as impressive as some of the other teams remaining, but their losses have come against teams that are still alive in the 2A Tournament.
Archbishop Murphy, Anacortes, and Lynden are all top 5 seeds, Sehome’s only lost by one against No. 4 Lynden when the two teams matched up in early October.
“They were electric and they were right there,” Garrow said. “It’ll be a battle. Everybody is good when you get this far.”
