TUMWATER – If defense does indeed win championships, then Archbishop Murphy and W.F. West both proved themselves worthy of wearing the Class 2A crown Saturday.

Near perfection is also required to win titles, and the Wildcats were just a little closer than the Bearcats on a stormy night at Tumwater Stadium.

Alex Martinez scored two touchdowns for Archbishop Murphy, the second of which broke a tie with 31.6 seconds left that gave the Wildcats a 14-7 Class 2A state quarterfinal victory over W.F. West.

“That was a battle, that was just a classic playoff battle,” Archbishop Murphy coach Dave Ward said. “These are two very evenly matched teams, and that’s what you saw.”

“We had opportunities. It just didn’t work out,” Bearcats coach Bob Wollan said. “There was going to be one very good football team that left here tonight heartbroken.”

The Wildcats (11-1) will take on Lynden next Saturday at the Tacoma Dome in the state semifinals. The Bearcats saw their formerly perfect season come to a close with an 11-1 record.

Two things really hurt W.F. West on Saturday – three turnovers and a nearly silent first-half offense.

The Bearcats ran just 12 plays in the first half, finishing the first two quarters with a rushing total of negative one yard and a total of 51 yards passing – 45 of which came on one play. Despite that, W.F. West trailed by a touchdown at halftime and drew even late in the third quarter when Tyler McCarty punched it in on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

Archbishop Murphy used a plethora of running backs, led by Martinez. The senior ran for 130 yards on 25 carries, and the Wildcats accumulated 343 rushing yards.

W.F. West picked up big chunks of yardage through the air. Ben Ternan completed 7-of-12 attempts for 183 yards, but the running game finished with just 23 yards. That lack of production can be traced back to an outstanding Wildcats defense and the loss of leading rusher Brennan Casteel, who tore his ACL in the Bearcats’ first-round win over Blaine.

“We really struggled offensively trying to figure out what we could do against these guys,” Wollan said. “And we knew going in that it was going to be very tough to move the football.”