Tumwater wins Thurston shootout
GRANT CLARK; For The News Tribune
Yes, mistakes were made – after all, it was the first game of the high school football season. But two things were crystal clear:
Tumwater has some lightning-quick running backs and Timberline can throw the football.
The scary thing if you are a defensive coordinator in either the Evergreen Conference or Olympic Western League is that both of these Thurston County offenses are bound to get better.
In the end, however, the Thunderbirds proved to have a little more firepower, defeating the Blazers, 32-27, in a non-league matchup Thursday at Tumwater Stadium.
Tumwater, which returns just two starters on offense and two on defense from last year’s EvCo championship squad, jumped out a 26-7 halftime lead only to watch Timberline charge back behind the passing of its first-year starting quarterback, junior Delas Raiford.
The Blazers trailed 26-21 with four minutes to play, but could not convert a fourth-and-5 from their own 31.
Three plays later, London Vessey scampered in from 16 yards to push Tumwater’s lead to 32-21 with 2 minutes, 12 seconds remaining.
Timberline once again rallied, marching down the field and adding a 2-yard touchdown run from Immanuel Garraway to produce the game’s final score. The Blazers were unable to come up with the onside kick.
Vessey led a powerful Tumwater ground game, rushing for a game-high 132 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.
“We have a lot of things we need to work on,” said Vessey, who also reeled off a 33-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to give the T-Birds a comfortable 20-7 advantage, “but it just felt amazing being out there. Give all the credit to the line, they’re the reason we won.”
Tumwater, looking to win a third consecutive conference title, finished with 306 yards of total offense, including 258 on the ground.
Josh Quintero chipped in 90 yards on eight carries. The junior closed out the first half with a 57-yard touchdown run with nine seconds remaining, giving Tumwater a 26-7 halftime lead.
Rocky Hinkle, making his first career start at quarterback, led the T-Birds to touchdowns on their first two drives – connecting with tight end Daniel DeVries on touchdown passes of 4 and 36 yards.
The only real offense Timberline generated in the first half came two plays into the second quarter when Raiford hit Josh Taylor on a 67-yard scoring strike to cut the Blazers’ deficit in half at 14-7.
Timberline managed 112 total yards of offense in the first half, finishing the first two quarters with a negative-8 yards on the ground and two first downs.
However, it was a completely different Timberline offense in the second half.
Raiford looked comfortable and poised running second-year coach Nick Mullen’s pistol offense in the second half, going 10-of-17 passing for 164 yards and leading the Blazers on three scoring drives to get back into the contest.
Raiford, who finished 13-of-22 for 247 yards, hit Taylor on a 24-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter.
A 13-yard Garraway touchdown run with 9:09 to play made it a 26-21 lead for the T-Birds.
Timberline also got 37 passing yards on 4-of-7 accuracy from Kevin Russell as the team finished with 362 total yards.
Ronnie Hamlin hauled in seven catches for 101 yards, while teammate Taylor caught two passes for 91 yards.
Both teams had scores called back. Hamlin had a 79-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter nullified because of illegal motion.
Tumwater lost a Kory Hamilton 90-yard punt return for a score in the second quarter.
