5 takeaways from the opening round of the high school football state playoffs
Nine local high school football teams are moving on. Graham-Kapowsin, Puyallup, Peninsula, Timberline, Yelm, Fife, Steilacoom, Black Hills and Tumwater all advanced to this weekend’s quarterfinals.
Eight more South Sound schools saw their seasons end. Curtis, Bethel, Lakes, Lincoln, Eatonville, Washington and Cascade Christian lost in the opening round, and Tacoma Baptist just missed making the eight-man bracket.
Here are five takeaways from the opening round of the state playoffs.
1. 3A SSC sends three to quarterfinals
The South Sound Conference can claim to be the strongest 3A league in the South Sound this season.
Each of the three teams in opening round of the state playoffs — Peninsula, Timberline and Yelm — won on Friday.
Its counterpart, the 3A Pierce County League, lost all three of its state qualifiers. And, two of those losses came in head-to-head meetings with 3A SSC teams.
No. 7 seed Peninsula, which won the 3A SSC title this season, ran over No. 10 seed Bethel, 55-34, at Roy Anderson Field in Purdy.
Seahawks quarterback Burke Griffin paired 153 passing yards with 138 rushing yards, and finished with four total touchdowns. Braeden Potter ran for four TDs on runs of 17, 3, 1 and 49 yards, and collected 157 yards on 19 carries.
“Being where we are now, we’re on the field every day and grinding as a team,” Potter said. “We’ve grown and developed so much.”
Peninsula (9-2) will meet second-seeded O’Dea (9-1) at 5 p.m. Friday at Seattle Memorial Stadium. O’Dea shut out the Seahawks, 28-0, in the season opener in August.
No. 12 seed Yelm (8-3) upset No. 5 seed Lakes (8-3) in a thriller at Harry E. Lang Stadium — and on the same field the Tornados won on the last time they played in the opening round of the state playoffs in 1987.
With 31 seconds to play, trailing by a score, Tornados quarterback Kyle Robinson orchestrated a game-winning drive, connecting with Austen Osso on a 38-yard TD pass to lift Yelm to a 15-14 win.
“They came out and knew what we needed to do with less than a minute,” Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo said. “That’s the third time this season that we’ve actually had to do a ‘mayday situation,’ which is two-minute drill.
“Get first downs, move the chains — stop the clock. I told the quarterback and wide receivers, ‘We don’t need home runs right now. What we need is first downs.’ And they executed it. I’m excited for them.”
In Lacey, eighth-seeded Timberline (9-2) hosted an east side team in the opening round for the second straight year, and again came away with a win.
The Blazers topped ninth-seeded Mount Spokane, 22-20, at South Sound Stadium in Lacey to earn a second consecutive trip to the quarterfinals. Timberline kicker Mason Joubert booted the 21-yard game-winning field goal with less than four minutes to play.
Hunter Campau continued his stellar season, pairing 131 passing yards with 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
2. Two 4A SPSL powers move on
No. 5 seed Puyallup (10-1) and No. 6 seed Graham-Kapowsin (10-1) are both headed to the 4A quarterfinals.
The Vikings had one of the largest margins of victory for a 4A team in the opening round, routing Eastmont, 45-10, at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.
Only top-seeded Union — which is also responsible for Puyallup’s only loss this season — won by more, in a 50-10 drubbing of Skyline in Vancover.
“We did what we had to do, and we got it done,” said Vikings running back Kyle Cramer, who gashed Easmont’s defense for 238 yards and three TDs on 25 carries.
Puyallup travels to Snoqualmie at 7 p.m. Friday to battle Oregon-commit Calde Millen and fourth-seeded Mount Si (10-1).
On Saturday, the Eagles edged No. 11 seed Mead in a 45-38 nailbiter at Art Crate Field in Spanaway.
Despite leading most of the way, Graham-Kapowsin gave up two late onside kick recoveries to the Panthers, who had a chance to tie with a minute to play.
“It was nerve-racking,” Eagles junior Malaki Roberson said.
Washington Huskies commit Dylan Morris threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
The Eagles travel to meet third-seed Lake Stevens (11-0) — who they beat in last season’s opening round — at 7 p.m. Saturday.
3. Local league shut out
In the district round, it was the 4A NPSL that went winless, losing all eight of its qualifying teams in a span of two days.
This week, in the opening round of the state playoffs, the 3A PCL lost its three remaining teams — Bethel, Lakes and Lincoln.
Lakes, which won the 3A PCL this season, and Lincoln, the league’s runner-up, both lost in upsets.
The Lancers were without a handful of starters against Yelm, including two-way standout Khalil Lewis, who led Lakes in rushing (115 carries, 847 yards, 14 total TDs in eight appearances) and all-purpose yards (128.1 per game).
At Lincoln Bowl in Tacoma, the sixth-seeded Abes (8-3) were upset by No. 11 seed Rainier Beach (6-3), managing just 150 yards and seven first downs.
“They were very aggressive,” Lincoln coach Masaki Matsumoto said. “They outplayed us.”
This is the third consecutive season the Abes were knocked out by a 3A Metro League team. This year, it was the Vikings — who were the state runners-up a season ago.
Last season, the Abes lost in the opening round to a Garfield team that featured reigning TNT state player of the year Tre’Shaun Harrison, who is now playing as a true freshman at Florida State.
The year before that, it was running back Jamyn Patu, who walked on with the Washington Huskies this season, and O’Dea that ended Lincoln’s season in the quarterfinals.
“They’ve been doing great things for the past few years,” Matsumoto said of Rainier Beach. “They went to the state finals last year, so obviously they’re a good program.
“We were definitely worried. We weren’t the happiest program in the world when we found out that was our first round (matchup).”
Vikings quarterback Trey Morris carved up Lincoln’s defense for 302 yards and two TDs on an impressive 21 of 24 passing.
The Abes managed just one touchdown, on a 1-yard run by Abner SioFetaui that was set up by a Lincoln forced fumble.
And, despite senior quarterback Nate Hughes — who recently returned from a shoulder injury — throwing for 323 yards and four TDs, including two to Division I prospect Peter Latu, Bethel couldn’t climb out of an early hole in Purdy.
4. 2A top teams remain
Of the three classifications in the South Sound that have teams remaining the smallest has the most.
Fife, the 2A SPSL champion, edged North Kitsap, 24-21, Friday night at Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner. The seventh-seeded Trojans (10-1) took the late lead on a 23-yard field goal by Gabriel Duenas, and then forced a Vikings fumble to seal the win.
“This was a great high school game,” Fife coach Kent Nevin told the Kitsap Sun. “It was down and dirty, both of us throwin’ haymakers. They came at us, we came at them, we didn’t back down.”
Further south, 2A Evergreen Conference champion Black Hills remained undefeated with a 40-point rout of No. 15 seed Burlington-Edison at home. The second-seeded Wolves’ 48-8 win was the largest margin of victory of any 2A opening-round game.
No. 9 seed Steilacoom (10-1), the 2A SPSL runner-up, thumped 2A Olympic League champions Sequim, 49-12, in Bremerton.
And No. 6 seed Tumwater (10-1), the 2A EvCo runner-up, survived a meeting with Prosser — which beat the T-Birds for a state title in 2015 — in a 24-21 win Saturday afternoon at Tumwater District Stadium.
5. Big-time performances
Steilacoom sophomore Emeka Egbuka continued to pile up yards in the Sentinels’ win over Sequim.
His 256 receiving yards — he had 226 in the first half — on eight catches against the Wolves set a program record. He topped the mark set by Josh Lewis (244 yards) in 2013.
Lewis is now a standout defensive back at Eastern Washington. Egbuka, a highly sought after Division I recruit, has early offers from Arizona, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Washington and Washington State.
Egbuka also had three TD catches of 40, 44 and 80 yards in the first half.
Graham-Kapowsin’s Malaki Roberson, who led the 4A SPSL in receiving this season, also had a monster game. He hauled in nine catches for 247 yards and two touchdowns in the Eagles’ win over Mead. His TDs were for 70 and 93 yards.
This story was originally published November 11, 2018 at 5:41 PM.