TUMWATER — The scores started coming in over the PA at Tumwater District Stadium in the second half of the T-Birds’ 42-0 win over Archbishop Murphy.
Anacortes 7, W.F. West 0.
Anacortes 14, W.F. West 0
Anacortes 21, W.F. West 0
If Tumwater coach Willie Garrow could hear the updates through his headset, they went in one ear and out the other.
“I could hear them say something, but then I’d be yelling at a kid so I’d miss the score,” he said.
He learned after the game of how the Seahawks were dismantling the Bearcats up north in the day's other 2A state semifinal. By the time the T-Birds took one last knee, it was all but assured.
Tumwater will get Anacortes once more, again at Husky Stadium, in the rematch everyone in green and gold has wanted for 51 weeks, after the Seahawks put up over 500 yards and 60 points in last year's state title game against the T-Birds.
“Our kids and coaches aren’t shy about talking about it,” Garrow said. ‘We got our butts kicked a year ago. We’ve wanted for whatever it is now, 12 months, the opportunity to go try to play there again.”
For the first 11 minutes at Sid Otton Field, that opportunity wasn't assured. An interception on the T-Birds’ first drive set Archbishop Murphy up inside the red zone, and only a missed field goal kept the visitors off the scoreboard.
But even as the Tumwater offense stalled early, its defense continued to shine.
“They’re really good,” Garrow said. “They play really hard. The coaches do a nice job of getting them in the right spots. They’re working their tails off, and they’re playing exceptionally well.”
Archbishop Murphy, running a Bellevue-style spread Wing T, ran for seven yards on its first offensive play of the game. Over the next 14 plays, they ran for just eight.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats fumbled the ball away three times deep in their own territory, and the T-Birds turned two into Cash Short touchdowns.
“That makes it a hell of a lot easier to score when you don’t have to go 80 yards, right?” Garrow said. “Putting together long drives was going to be a bit of a challenge … having the defense force a couple of short fields like that is massive.”
Short ended with 61 yards on the ground and a trio of touchdowns on 13 carries. Sunny Nguyen put up a team-high 76 yards, 74 coming on one touchdown tote around the left end on the T-Birds’ first offensive play of the fourth quarter. He also went 60 yards on a screen pass from quarterback Jaxon Budd.
Budd capped off the scoring with an 11-yard run in the fourth quarter, which made Tumwater 4-for-4 at triggering the running clock in the postseason. Over that stretch, the T-Birds have outscored their opponents 226-15.
Now, they're in the state title game for the second straight year, marking the third time in program history with back-to-back championship appearances.
In 1989 and 1990, they went back-to-back. In 2012 and 2013, Tumwater reached the postseason's final weekend, only to lose both titles.
This time, the T-Birds are hoping for a different sort of sequel to last year's end.
“We have to play better than we did a year ago,” Garrow said. “If we play to our capabilities we think we can compete with anybody. And that doesn’t mean we’ll win, but we can compete with anybody in the state if we play to our ability.”
