5 takeaways from Steilacoom’s 42-21 Class 2A state tournament win over Ridgefield
The No. 2 Steilacoom Sentinels beat the No. 15 Ridgfield Spudders in the opening round of the Class 2A state football tournament at Mount Tahoma High School on Friday night, 42-21.
Featuring one of the top players in the country, Steilacoom didn’t disappoint, getting off to a promising start to their run for a state title. Here are five takeaways from the Sentinels’ win.
STEILACOOM STARTS WITH A BANG
On the opening play of the game, Steilacoom’s De’Andre Napier took the opening kickoff and returned it for a touchdown. Before Ridgefield could even blink, Steilacoom held a 7-0 lead.
“That was huge,” said Steilacoom coach Colby Davies. “That’s a big play from him. We know he has that type of big-play ability. For him to come out and start the game like that for us, that makes everything a lot easier. He did a great job, ran hard. … He’s got a lot of big play ability. We picked up a few key blocks.”
Few teams in the state are as dangerous on special teams as Steilacoom is. It’s a part of the game that is often overlooked, but for Steilacoom, winning the special teams battle is an important part of winning games.
“We rep special teams a lot,” said Steilacoom receiver Emeka Egbuka. “We believe it’s one of the key elements to winning a football game. You can have really big plays in there, onside kicks, returns, stuff like that. We rep it a lot and we really craft our technique.”
EMEKA EGBUKA IS SPECIAL
Of course, it helps on special teams, when you have one of the country’s top athletes. Egbuka, considered a 5-star prospect by 247sports.com, makes teams that choose to punt the football his way look foolish — which he did on Friday night, returning a punt for a touchdown in the first quarter.
“I just get really excited when I see that ball coming,” Egbuka said. “I saw a lot of green grass and I knew what I was able to do. I’m just really proud of my teammates.”
Egbuka, who didn’t play in the second half of the blowout win, also racked up six catches for 107 yards and a touchdown and rushed twice for 12 yards and a touchdown.
That rushing touchdown came out of the Wildcat formation, when Egbuka took the direct snap and ran it in from nine yards out, dragging three or four defenders with him into the end zone.
A lot has been made about Egbuka’s explosiveness and playmaking ability, but his strength is perhaps an underrated part of his game and another component that makes him a total-package player and recruiting prospect.
“I don’t know if that Wildcat package is something we would’ve put in for him last year or the year before,” Davies said. “He just works so hard to get better in every aspect of the game, especially physically. He’s put on weight, he’s a lot stronger this year. He’s equipped for that.”
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, consider the Hockinson football program flattered — Davies said Steilacoom was inspired by seeing Hockinson use the Wildcat last season with UW commit Sawyer Racanelli.
“We think we have a guy that’s that talented and can shoulder the load for us,” Davies said. “That’s a package that, we ran it a little bit over the last few weeks, but you could see more of it. Teams have a tough time preparing for it. We know we’re already explosive on offense, so if we can get teams to prepare for something else each week, that’s good for us.”
And Egbuka certainly doesn’t mind taking the direct snap.
“We’ve been repping it a lot,” he said. “It’s definitely fun for me, fun for the guys to play downhill and grind out those yards.”
STEILACOOM’S RUN DEFENSE LOOKS TOUGH
With the starters in during the first half, Steilacoom held Ridgefield to a paltry two net rushing yards. Ridgefield running backs Hunter Abrams and Trey Knight managed just 16 yards on 12 carries in the first half.
The run defense is something that has gradually improved over the course of the season for Steilacoom, which knew some adjustments needed to be made after a 56-47 loss to Lynden in a non-league game.
“We’ve just become more physical and we’re playing with better technique up front,” Davies said. “Those guys understand the expectations. We coach that up like crazy. That was a big emphasis for us this week. We had a heavy focus on them.”
While Steilacoom will surely face some better rushing attacks in the state tournament than the one it saw Friday night, Sentinels’ coach Colby Davies is feeling good about where his unit is right now.
CHANCE MCDONALD IS IN CONTROL OF THE OFFENSE
It was a particularly efficient outing for the Sentinels’ quarterback on Friday night, completing 10-of-11 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown in the first half in the win.
McDonald, who is in his first year as the program’s starting QB, has gradually improved this season and right now, looks in total control of the offense.
“I’m feeling good,” McDonald said. “The receivers are making plays, the linemen are blocking for me. It’s a team thing. We’re all executing and it showed tonight and that’s why we got the win.”
Davies said the team is playing with confidence right now with McDonald at the helm.
“I think every week, he grows and grows and grows,” Davies said. “He’s playing well. He’s our leader out there. He’s doing a good job distributing the football.”
COULD WE SEE A STEILACOOM VS. TUMWATER TITLE GAME?
It was nice to see the top two Class 2A teams from the South Sound on opposite sides of the bracket in this year’s state tournament, with Tumwater taking the top seed and Steilacoom taking the No. 2 seed.
There are still games to win before a No. 1 vs. No. 2 state title showdown could become a reality, but both teams have the talent and experience to make that matchup a reality. It would be a fascinating matchup between two of 2A’s heavyweights, with two completely different offensive styles on display — Steilacoom, with its pass-heavy air-raid, and Tumwater, with its old school, Wing-T rushing attack.
We’ll see how it plays out, but if that’s the state championship matchup? Sign us up.
