Camas holds off Tumwater rally to claim 28-26 win in battle of 2019 state champs

Bill Beattie didn’t get what he wanted.

A loss is a loss, even the almost-overtime 28-26 defeat his Tumwater High School team suffered at the hands of Camas on Friday night at Tumwater District Stadium.

But the Thunderbirds’ coach got what he believes his team needs as the playoffs approach: a night-long battle against a quality opponent.

“I guarantee that we’re better now than we were at the start of that game,” Beattie said.

Tumwater won the last 2A state tournament contested, in 2019, while Camas won 4A state that season, so fireworks were to be expected. Fans got their money’s worth as the teams players what Beattie called “two different games,”

In the first half, the Papermakers (3-4, but unbeaten against Washington competition after losing to four of Oregon’s strongest teams to start the season) took advantage of Tumwater mistakes and their own high-powered offense to take a 28-7 lead.

“We want to play great competition and teams like that are going to come out and get after you,” Beattie said. “It took us a half to wake up. We made way too many mistakes.

“Those mistakes fall on my shoulders. We had way too many penalties, way too many miscues.”

After Tumwater (4-2) capitalized on a Camas’ fumble to go up 7-0 early on a 1-yard run by Carlos Matheney, the Papermakers made it look like they would blow out Tumwater.

Twice they scored on bombs from quarterback Taylor Ioane to Mark Thorkelson, one from 60 yards out, the other from 87.

Then, a little more than five minutes before halftime, with Tumwater knocking the door on third down from the Camas one, a direct snap to running back Payton Hoyt went awry and the Papermakers’ Nathan Criddle scooped the ball up and dashed 82 yards for a 28-7 lead.

But Camas would never score again as Tumwater methodically worked its way back into the game after a scoreless third quarter.

Taking over at their own 27 late in that period, the T-Birds moved quickly to the Camas 30. Quarterback Alex Overbay, who had taken over for starter Brady Prothero after halftime, threw a cross field pass to receiver Seth Weller to cut Camas’ lead to 28-14.

Holding Camas to just five yards on its next possession, Tumwater put together a 14-play, 69-yard drive culminating in another 1-yard touchdown blast by Matheney, who totaled 150 yards rushing.

What turned into disaster struck, though, when a bad snap on the extra point attempt left Tumwater down, 28-20.

With just three minutes to play, the T-Birds needed to recover an onside kick and did. This time, they drove 45 yards in nine plays and scored when Overbay, who completed 8 of 10 passes for 113 yards, found Ryan Otton for a 21-yard touchdown.

“Alex stepped in and did a fantastic job during the second half,” said Beattie.

On the two-point conversion, though, the guy who had shined in Camas’ passing game, Thorkelson, stymied Tumwater’s, stepping in front of tight end Ryan Otton to intercept Overbay’s pass.

“Look what our kids did in the second half. They battled back and battled back. That’s what we want from our non-league games,” Beattie said.

In addition to Matheney’s production on the ground, Tumwater got 105 yards rushing from Hoyt.

The T-Birds next opponent will be Pioneer Bowl rival Black Hills, but Beattie says the job at practice over the coming days will be to reduce Tumwater’s own mistakes as much as working on a scouting report.

“I can’t wait for Monday,” Beattie said. “I can’t wait to get back out on the field. Our kids are going to be hungry to play next week.”