TUMWATER — The Black Hills football team has gone through its fair share of adversity over the last four years.
This senior class of Wolves lost in a Kansas Tiebreaker three years ago, then had a tough COVID-shortened season in 2020, before a one-win year a season ago in 2021.
So in 2022, when Black Hills’ seniors got its second crack at a tiebreaker and a bid to crossover weekend, they weren’t going to let what happened to them in 2019 happen again.
Led by some late dramatics, the Wolves clinched the No. 3 seed in the 2A Evergreen Conference, and will play Mark Morris in Longview next Saturday with a trip to state on the line.
“It’s amazing, I’m so proud of the kids and happy for them,” Wolves coach Garrett Baldwin said. “One more game to qualify for state, I’m just excited and elated and proud of this team.”
On a night that Black Hills had been thinking about for a long time, even through triumph, the Wolves hit bumps along the road early. The Wolves opened the tiebreaker with an overtime period against Shelton, and fell, 8-7, after allowing a two-point conversion to a wide-open receiver in the back of the end zone.
The loss put the Wolves into a do-or-die overtime tiebreaker against Aberdeen, with the winner going home after the Bobcats fell to the Highclimbers in the second overtime game.
Facing fourth-and-5 and needing a score after the Bobcats already found the end zone, Wolves quarterback Jaxsen Beck found Maddox Hodge for a touchdown in the back corner of the end zone to even the game at 7-7 heading into the second period.
Taking possession first in the next period, Beck found Xander Shepler for a 16-yard touchdown on a nice strike, and the Wolves again decided to send out their PAT unit to take a 7-point lead.
But facing a high snap, and an impending rush, Shepler — who just scored the go-ahead touchdown — didn’t like what he saw.
“The ball was snapped a little high, I caught it and looked up and I saw that people were coming so I didn’t think I could get the ball down and the kick off in time,” Shepler said. “I made the decision to pull it, and I told myself that I had to score. There’s no point to it, I had to score.”
Shepler ran to his left and beat the Bobcat defenders to the pylon for a two-point conversion and an 8-point lead. After Aberdeen scored once again on a short touchdown drive, it needed to go for two to keep the game going.
“He’s a playmaker, he makes plays,” Baldwin said of Shepler. “He knew he had to do a job, and he got it done.”
After allowing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to Shelton to drop its first tiebreaker, the Wolves didn’t let that happen again, sealing the victory and the third seed in the league.
“This game guarantees adversity, so how were we going to respond?” Baldwin said. “That’s not how we wanted to start, that’s not the vision we had, we wanted to win the first one and watch it end in the next game, but we kept battling and got it done.
“The defense has had a hard time lately, but that's a big stand but I hope that stand gives us the energy to head into this crossover game with some momentum.”
Despite losing to Shelton in the first tiebreaker, because the Highclimbers and Wolves were the two teams to advance, and the Wolves beat Shelton in their regular season meeting, Black Hills won the third/fourth tiebreaker. While Black Hills goes to Longview for a battle with Greater St. Helens League runner-up Mark Morris, the Highclimbers will head to Washougal.
“It means a lot, we’ve struggled the last three years,” Shepler said. “It means a lot to everyone, we worked so hard during the offseason and the season to get here, we all needed this.”
