Eatonville tops Tenino in 1A showdown on Saturday, 24-22

Visible play clocks have yet to be installed at Eatonville High School’s B.W. Lyon Stadium.

So, on a beautiful fall Saturday, the most watched guy on the near perfect grass playing surface was the back judge signaling the final few seconds until Tenino needed to snap the ball without penalty.

The Beavers came into their 1A Evergreen Conference battle of unbeatens with the No. 2 Cruisers with an obvious game plan. Wary of Eatonville’s fast paced offense of sweeps and passes and frequent no-huddle snaps, Tenino slowed the game down, waiting in its full house backfield formation until the last moment before snapping the ball.

When they did, the cliché “three yards and a cloud of dust” would’ve applied if the grass in Eatonville wasn’t still pre-rainy season perfect. Tenino rushed 59 times for 231 yards, losing yardage just five times, but breaking loose for gains of 10 or more yards only twice.

The Beavers put together several long drives, held the ball two-thirds of the time and ran more than twice as many plays as the Cruisers.

In the end, though, the explosions built into Eatonville’s offense were enough to hold off Tenino, 24-22.

“We knew coming in they were a good team at what they do,” Eatonville coach Gavin Kralik said of Tenino. “They present you with some unique things you’re not used to. Takari Hickle (who would lead the Beavers with 94 yards on 20 carries) is a great player.”

Kralik took Tenino’s deliberate style as a compliment to his squad.

“It sends the message ‘hey we don’t think we can beat you in a full game, our best bet is to shrink the game,’” he said.

Tenino coach Cary Nagel had no problem with that assessment.

“They’re a very explosive offense, our offense is grind it out. We thought we could control the game and our game plan worked fine,” he said. “The game went exactly the way we wanted it to go, but a couple of things didn’t bounce our way.”

The game began as if the obvious was about to take place: Eatonville (5-0, it’s only loss in 2021 to 3A Yelm during the spring), a perennially strong 2A team dropping to 1A for the first time this season, would run away from a Tenino team new to the concept of being unbeaten after four games.

On the second play, Eatonville quarterback Kevin Wulff neatly dropped a pass over a Tenino defender to senior wide receiver Jacob Lucht, who dashed into the end zone to complete a 52-yard touchdown play. But there was little visible worry on the Tenino sideline.

The Beavers moved the ball 75 yards on 10 plays during their own first possession, using six different ball carriers, and scored on a 34-yard run by Oregon State-bound workhorse Hickle. A two-point conversion run by Dylan Spicer gave Tenino (4-1) an 8-7 lead.

Eatonville responded with the first of two touchdown runs by Job Kralik, who would also kick a field goal and intercept a key Tenino pass, a 44-yard dash with a reverse on a handoff from Blain Hanly, making in 14-8.

“This was definitely one of my better games,” Kralik said. “But it wasn’t me, it was our entire offense. I ran for a touchdown, but it was the big dudes up front.”

He credited tight ends Jake Woods and Waylan Mettler, as well as 6-foot-6, 270-pound lineman Kyle Cox with key blocks.

That’s when Tenino truly played keep away. They put together a 12-play drive that stalled just inside Eatonville territory, turning the ball over on downs. But on the Cruisers’ first play, Wulff kept, and trying to fight for yards after contact, fumbled it back to the Beavers.

Twelve more running plays in a row brought Tenino to the Eatonville six yard line. Beavers’ quarterback Kysen Knox rolled to his left after some play action and hit a wide open Bryan Budsberg in the end zone. Another two point conversion run by Spicer again gave Tenino the lead, 16-14.

To that point, the game had been perfectly clean according to the officials, with nary a penalty flag thrown. But as Eatonville scrambled to try to retake the lead before halftime that changed.

On second and two from the Tenino 19, Wulff was sacked by Hickle with only five seconds left on the clock. But a penalty against the Beavers halved the distance to the goal and Kralik booted a 30-yard field goal to give Eatonville the lead for good.

Three minutes into the second half, Kralik again took the ball on a sweep and dashed into the end zone untouched from 35 yards out to give the Cruisers a 24-16 edge.

Again, the Beavers responded with a time-consuming drive, running 14 straight times before they faced a fourth-and-19 at the Eatonville 23. Knox threw his second pass and his second touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, finding Max Craig down the middle to pull Tenino within a two-point conversion of a tie.

“Kysen is a great player for us,” said Nagel. “We expect big things out of him. He’s kind of solidifying himself as the guy at quarterback. He played well today.”

But this time, the Beavers couldn’t convert and neither team would score again.

“I was really proud of our defense’s ability to adjust later and stop what they were doing,” coach Kralik said.

“We were very well prepared, we just came up short,” said Nagel. “This is a team. We showed up and played well.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 7:51 PM.