For the second straight week, the Napavine football team had to come back — technically.
Just like in its win over Kalama last Saturday, Napavine fumbled the ball away, on its first possession, and this time, Raymond-South Bend picked it up and ran it back for a scoop-and-score to take a six-point lead.
“We’ve got to clean that up, but I’m really proud of the way we responded,” Napavine coach Josh Fay said.
So the start may not have been stellar, but what the Tigers (7-1, 3-0 C2B North) did after was, rolling out 44 points to end the first half in a 56-12 rout.
Once Napavine got rolling, it fired on all cylinders, with five separate Tigers finding the end zone. Ashton Demarest got the guests’ scoring started with a pair of rushing touchdowns in the first quarter, and added two passing scores to his line in the second.
Cayle Kelly and Cael Stanley both scored twice, finishing with 138 and 60 yards, respectively. As a team, the Tigers ran for 352 yards, behind the line of Jack Nelson, Gabe Dickinson, Diego Martinez, Brody Landrum and Pablo Ruedas-Guido.
“I think that all goes back to the five guys up front,” Fay said. “We played five the whole night, and they did a really nice job.”
James Grose racked up 104 receiving yards and scored on a 30-yard pass, and Colin Shield caught a 27-yard touchdown.
Napavine will play for the SWW 2B North title Thursday, when it hosts Forks.
