Napavine rallies past Okanogan in second half to win 2B state championship

Sometimes, circumstances really can create the charm of good luck the third time around. Napavine High School experienced such fortune for the second time in eight seasons on Saturday evening.

Playing in their third Class 2B state championship football game in four seasons, the Tigers won the title for the first time in that stretch, 41-27 over Okanogan at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood.

Napavine charted a similar path that culminated in a title to conclude the 2016 season, as well. After losing the championship game to these same Bulldogs in 2014 and 2015, the Tigers won on their third try that year.

“I’ll take it any way we can get it,” Napavine coach Josh Fay said. “It seems like it’s been a million years since we’ve gotten this one. But, I think it’s a reflection of the program, of all these kids.”

This one turned on a five-minute stretch to begin the second half. Trailing by a touchdown at the half, the Tigers (13-0) got three huge special teams plays, scored 20 points in the first four minutes, 41 seconds of the third quarter and wrested away momentum, never giving it back.

The turnaround was a complete change from one year ago, when Napavine couldn’t get anything done against Kalama in the title game.

“It was terrible,” junior running back Cael Stanley said of that game last December. “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was so nice to get this one.”

The Tigers trailed 21-14 after Okanogan put together a 12-play drive to close out the first half with Johnny Swartsel’s second rushing touchdown of the game at the 6-second mark of the second quarter. Swartsel finished with 193 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries.

But, on the second half-opening kickoff, Conner Holmes booted it low and hard at the Okanogan front. The ball hit a Bulldog and bounced, and Caleb Von Pressentin fell on it at the Okanogan 43-yard line.

“Lightning strike, I think,” Fay said. “We told Conner, if you can get a piece of one of the guys on the front or second row, we’d get there. Two really good kicks. In these games, you’ve got to recover those.”

Two plays later, Tigers quarterback Ashton Demarest found a streaking Colin Shields down the left side for 40 yards and suddenly the game was tied, 21-21, less than a minute into the third quarter.

Kicking low again, the Bulldogs controlled it but were held to a single first down before having to punt it away. Karsen Denault was waiting. The sophomore caught it at his own 24-yard line, got to the left side and started to weave his way upfield, finally breaking through a final potential tackle and racing 76 yards to give Napavine a 28-21 lead with 8:27 to go in the quarter.

“Actually, I thought I was going to drop it,” Denault said. “But, we got yelled at at halftime. We came out and just changed the whole game around.”

The very next kickoff, Holmes did it again. He banged the kick off the shoulder of an Okanogan player and Brody Landram recovered again for the Tigers. Four plays after that, Max O’Neill took an end-around handoff and ripped through the Okanogan defense for a 31-yard touchdown.

Twenty points. Four minutes, 38 seconds. And a seven-point deficit became a 34-21 lead en route to Napavine’s first state title since 2016.

it also was the second consecutive season in which Napavine eliminated the Bulldogs from the playoffs. The Tigers beat Okanogan in the state semifinals last November before losing the championship game to Kalama.