The Tumwater football team’s climb back to the summit of the 2A football world came to a dramatic, crashing and crushing end Saturday at Husky Stadium, in a 60-30 loss to No. 2 Anacortes.
The 60-burger is the most points Tumwater has allowed in a game since the T-Birds beat W.F. West 63-62 in 2004, and the most they’ve allowed in a loss in program history.
The Thunderbirds got off to a dream start, taking the opening play 32 yards on an end around to Peyton Davis, and scoring four plays later on a 26 yard run the other way by Cash Short.
From there, though, the Seahawks ripped off 34 unanswered points to take a 28-point lead into halftime.
Tumwater gained 65 on its opening drive, and managed just 44 yards the rest of the half, until Jaylin Nixon took a misdirection play 29 yards on the final play before the break.
The T-Birds found a spark of offense out of halftime, scoring 24 points in the third quarter, but they had absolutely no answer to the Seahawks’ own weapons.
Anacortes — just four years removed from not fielding a varsity team — found the end zone on nine of its 11 drives, the last of which ended with the Seahawks taking two knees to seal the win and its first-ever title.
When the T-Birds got going on offense and threatened to get back into the game, the Seahawks answered back. After Tumwater scored on its first drive of the third quarter to cut the deficit to 20, the Thunderbird defense forced Anacortes into third-and-39 — only for the Seahawks to take a shot and come up with a 47-yard back-breaker from Larson Rylin Lang.
The Seahawks gained 552 yards, just 48 off of the 2A state title game record. Quarterback Rex Larson lit the T-Birds up for 346 yards through the air on 26-of-34 passing, with four touchdowns. He found seven different Seahawks — four of whom caught at least four passes.
Peyton Davis led Tumwater with 63 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Senior quarterback Ethan Kastner went 8 for 19 with a touchdown to Brady Bryant, who caught five passes for 78 yards.
Tumwater ends its season with a 13-1 record.
