Week 10: What we learned from this week’s high school football games in the South Sound
Week 10 of the high school football season is in the books. TNT high school sports reporters Jon Manley, Lauren Smith and Tyler Wicke discuss what stood out from this week’s district round.
What’s your biggest takeaway from Week 10?
Manley: The average margin of victory for the 4A SPSL’s top four advancing programs — Graham-Kapowsin, Curtis, Emerald Ridge and Sumner — was 36.5 points. Those programs look ready for the state tournament. Outside of Yelm, it didn’t feel like a great year for the 3A SSC. Gig Harbor and Timberline both lost, and Yelm will be the league’s lone representative at state. The 3A PCL’s top two programs, Mount Tahoma and Lincoln, both impressed in blowout wins. Props to Mount Tahoma: the T-Birds are going to state for the first time in 39 years.
Smith: The 4A SPSL will send four teams to the state bracket this season. Undefeated league champion Graham-Kapowsin (63-15 win over Kamiak), Curtis (45-3 win over Tahoma), Emerald Ridge (50-36 win over Bothell) and Sumner (48-6 win over Battle Ground) all posted multi-touchdown victories against their district round opponents Friday night to advance. The league nearly sent a fifth team to the bracket Saturday, with Puyallup rallying to tie the game in the fourth quarter on the road against Skyline, but the Spartans eventually closed out a 25-22 win in overtime. This is the first time the 4A SPSL, which now includes 10 programs, has sent four teams to the state playoffs since 2011, when the 18-team league was split into a pair of nine-team divisions. Bethel, Federal Way, Kentlake and Kentwood advanced that year.
Wicke: We’ve gushed over the 4A SPSL’s depth, strength and premier quarterbacking. We’ve seen electric shootouts among the top contenders. And now, the league sends four programs to the state tournament. No. 1 Graham-Kapowsin, No. 7 Curtis, No. 11 Emerald Ridge, and No. 13 Sumner each won by 14-plus points in the district round, ensuring an abundance of South Sound representation in the 4A bracket. Curtis returns to state for the first time since 2018. Emerald Ridge stormed to the 4A semifinals last season in what was their first state appearance in program history, and have secured a repeat bid. Sumner’s (6-3, 7-3) three losses came to the SPSL rivals alongside them, including Graham-Kapowsin, the top seed that won the 2021 title and reached the semifinals in 2022. This should be fun.
Which team impressed you most in Week 10?
Manley: Where do I start? Graham-Kapowsin, Curtis, Sumner, Enumclaw and Tumwater all won big. I thought Mount Tahoma and Lincoln were impressive, too. I like what I saw from Emerald Ridge in a 50-36 win over state tournament regular Bothell on Friday in Puyallup. Even without Gio Kafentzis, that offense is humming right now. I think running back Navarre Dixon gives that offense a balance they maybe didn’t have last year. Emerald Ridge will be a tough out for anybody in the state tournament.
Smith: Historic wins for both this season’s 3A NPSL and 3A PCL champions on Saturday night in Auburn and Tacoma. Auburn Riverside is on the way to the state playoffs for the first time in program history — the school opened in 1995 — following a 28-9 win over Juanita in the district round. The Ravens scored four second-half touchdowns after trailing 3-0 at halftime to advance. Mount Tahoma returns to the state bracket for the first time since 1984 after routing West Seattle, 53-14, and enters the state playoffs on a five-game winning streak. The T-Birds have also now won seven of their past eight.
Wicke: Yelm’s defense is a proverbial brick wall. The Tornados denied Kent-Meridian a first down until the third quarter in Friday’s district round, after Yelm had pulled its starters, in what quickly became a 60-0 smattering. Kent-Meridian tried to establish the run, losing six yards on 24 carries. And this was a game in which Yelm did not feature a 100-yard rusher or receiver despite possessing a skill group that can erupt any given weekend. The Tornados haven’t allowed more than nine points to a 3A opponent all season and own an active 24-game win streak — entering the bracket as the reigning champions and top seed.
Which individual performance stood out most in Week 10?
Manley: Emerald Ridge quarterback Jake Schakel completed 15-of-18 passes for 218 yards and three TDs and added another score on the ground. That’s an 83 percent completion percentage against a perennial playoff team. Also, welcome back Sumner’s Matthew Spurbeck. In his first game back since a midseason knee injury, he rushed for 108 yards and a TD on 13 carries.
Smith: Yelm’s Anthony Kiamco returned a pair of punts for touchdowns in the Tornados’ 60-0 win over Kent-Meridian, and now has four special teams touchdowns this season, as well as seven scores on offense and two on defense. Thyrou Umi-Tuato’o paced Auburn Riverside to a 28-9 win over Juanita with 20 carries for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Maurice Gosby Jr. piled up 142 yards and four touchdowns on 10 carries in Lincoln’s 56-22 win over Auburn. Curtis quarterback Rocco Koch tallied five rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown in a 45-3 win over Tahoma, and now has 51 total touchdowns — 28 passing, 23 rushing — through 10 games.
Wicke: You’d think Curtis QB Rocco Koch was the every-down tailback on Friday night from the box score — 17 carries, 244 rushing yards, five touchdowns. The dual-threat signal caller added a passing score to Mataio Wilson in the third quarter, making Koch responsible for all six of Curtis’ six touchdowns in a 45-3 rout of Tahoma in the district round. Another crazy stat from Friday night: On consecutive Kent-Meridian three-and-outs in the second quarter, Yelm’s Anthony Kiamco returned back-to-back punt returns for touchdowns, both from 54 yards. He added five carries for 82 yards and a rushing touchdowns (three total).
State brackets have been announced for all six classifications. Which South Sound team has the best path to a title?
Manley: I like No. 1 Tumwater’s path in the 2A bracket. They open with No. 16 Port Angeles, before playing the winner of No. 8 Clarkston and No. 9 Woodland in the second round. The T-Birds probably aren’t seriously tested until the state semifinals, where a matchup against the winner of North Kitsap and Lynden likely awaits. I don’t think either North Kitsap or Lynden are as good as they were a year ago, and Tumwater already beat North Kitsap soundly in an early-season nonleague game.
Smith: The three that enter the bracket with No. 1 seeds — Graham-Kapowsin in 4A, Yelm in 3A and Tumwater in 2A. All three teams — which enter the week 10-0 — have home games as long as they keep playing, up through the semifinals. Graham-Kapowsin won an undefeated title in a tough 4A SPSL that is sending four teams to the state playoffs, and wouldn’t have to face a league opponent again until at least the semifinals. Yelm is the defending 3A state champion, enters the bracket with an active 24-game winning streak and has outscored opponents, 529-91, this season. Yelm’s only close contest to this point is still a victory — an 8-7 win on the road against a Camas program that is 9-1 and seeded third in the 4A bracket. Tumwater has double-digit wins over every opponent this season — including a 20-point victory over No. 4 seed North Kitsap — and is on the opposite side of the bracket from the other two remaining undefeated 2A teams in No. 2 seed Anacortes and No. 3 seed Enumclaw.
Wicke: The South Sound boasts the number-one seed in both 3A and 4A brackets: 4A-Graham-Kapowsin and 3A-Yelm remain undefeated, earning first-round pairings with No. 16 Richland and No. 16 Marysville-Pilchuck, respectively. The Eagles and Tornados equally cruised through their district rounds, but the 4A bracket’s parity and Yelm’s 3A dominance as the reigning state champion gives the Tornados the easier path. Graham-Kapowsin already owns victories over all three SPSL rivals joining them in the postseason, but all were by seven points or fewer. Could we see a rematch?
Which South Sound team do you think could surprise in the state playoffs?
Manley: I think Sumner is as tough a No. 13 seed as there is this year, especially now that the Spartans welcomed back RB Matthew Spurbeck last week. He’s been out since the middle of the season with a knee injury and if he’s at 100 percent and running behind Dylan Sikorski and that offensive line, Spurbeck can take over games in a hurry.
Smith: Sumner. The Spartans’ only losses this season are to the other three 4A SPSL programs in the 4A bracket — Graham-Kapowsin, Curtis and Emerald Ridge — and all three of those early-season losses were close, decided late in the fourth quarter or overtime. Sumner is on a five-game winning streak since, including posting a convincing 48-6 victory over Battle Ground in the district round last week. Last season’s 4A SPSL MVP Matthew Spurbeck (knee) is back, and rushed for 100-plus yards and a touchdown in the contest, while Steele Isaacs has been a consistent contributor in the run game, averaging 100-plus yards per game. QB Tristen Rebar and the Spartans’ receivers have also made key plays. Sumner is in the state playoffs for the ninth time since 2012, and have reached the 4A quarterfinals each of the past two seasons.
Wicke: Enumclaw deserves the fanfare — but Orting (9-1) established itself as one of 2A’s strongest programs, its only loss to the undefeated Hornets in September. The Cardinals allowed 81 total points in nine wins, most recently blanking Olympic in the district round, 44-0, behind five rushing touchdowns. Orting returned 14 starters this offseason and bolstered both offensive and defensive lines, helping the Cardinals run all the way to 2A’s seventh seed. Up first: No. 10 Washougal at Cardinal Stadium on Friday night.
