Crowd: ‘You can’t stop us’ — Tumwater cruises to quarterfinal victory against Clarkston
Perhaps it was out of sheer boredom. The Tumwater Thunderbirds had literally run over, around and by the Clarkston Pirates for 15 minutes.
So, after consecutive 12-yard runs from Kooper Clark and Mathias Rodriguez gave the T-Birds a first-and-goal at the Clarkston 3-yard line, the Tumwater coaches rolled quarterback Ethan Kastner out to his right to throw it. Kastner saw Logan Cole moving toward the sideline in the end zone, lofted the ball and put a fifth straight touchdown on the scoreboard in Tumwater’s eventual 42-6 state 2A quarterfinal win at Sid Otton Field on Saturday afternoon.
The win means the T-Birds will host a state semifinal next Saturday against either Lynden or North Kitsap. The format this season puts semifinals at individual schools instead of at neutral sites.
“In 2019, we had a chance to do that, too,” Tumwater coach Willie Garrow said. “So as a coaching staff, we’re familiar with it. We’re excited to be able to do that in front of our community and our fans, family and friends. That’s really exciting and our players have worked really hard for it.”
Cole’s touchdown catch came with 8 minutes, 26 seconds to play in the second quarter. It came three plays after the Tumwater defense intercepted Clarkston quarterback Carter Steinwand for the second time in two Pirate possessions.
And it came on Tumwater’s fifth scoring drive in five overall T-Bird possessions to that point. Immediately upon his catching the ball, the Tumwater side of the stadium erupted into chants of “You can’t stop us. You can’t stop us.”
And really, Clarkston didn’t stop the T-Birds the entire first half. The only two times Tumwater had the ball but didn’t score, Kastner was intercepted when a ball tight end Jacob Dillon tipped to himself and momentarily caught was tapped out of his hands by Clarkston DB Ryken Craber, who pulled it out of the air for the pick.
Then on the T-Birds’ next possession, they suffered their only three-and-out of the entire half. It didn’t matter, though, with the Tumwater defense keeping Steinwand and company completely under control.
“Everything was kind of just clicking defensively,” linebacker Beckett Wall said. “Everyone was doing their job. That’s kind of how we were able to shut them down.”
Wall ended the Pirate drive just after that Tumwater three-and-out when he tipped a Steinwald pass to himself, dove and came up with the third T-Bird interception at their own 44. It then took Peyton Davis just one play to pay it off as the sophomore broke one for 56 yards and the touchdown that gave Tumwater a 42-0 lead with 1:31 to go in the half.
That score invoked the mercy rule and a running clock for the entire second half. It also was part of the 173 yards and three touchdowns that Davis ran for, all in the first half, on 10 carries.
Overall, seven different Tumwater runners carried the ball 26 times for 301 yards and those five touchdowns in the first 24 minutes.
“We’ve been practicing all week for this,” Davis said. “We were ready. We got this. That’s the standard. That’s what we do.”
With the running clock in the second half, Tumwater gained just 13 total yards on three possessions, giving them 314 total yards on the ground, while playing mostly second- and third-string personnel on defense.
“That’s a good number,” Garrow said. “I didn’t know what it was. But that’s a good number.”
Clarkston did finally get on the board with 3:26 left, as Steinwand connected with Craber for a 31-yard touchdown strike. Steinwand ultimately threw for 234 yards, completing 16 of 30 passes with those three interceptions and the TD.
That couldn’t match up against the onslaught from Tumwater, though.
“It’s not easy,” Garrow said. “Our kids worked really hard on great execution. It’s a great compliment to our kids and our assistant coaches who put in a lot of time to be able to execute that well and that efficiently.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2023 at 4:26 PM.