Unstoppable? Tumwater rolls Archbishop Murphy, 42-0. State championship game next
Archbishop Murphy coughed the ball up twice in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s Class 2A state semifinal game against No. 1 Tumwater.
Both fumbles were recovered by the host T-Birds at the edge of the red zone. And both times, Tumwater turned the short fields into touchdowns, taking a 21-0 lead into halftime.
If there was an upset recipe for the road underdogs, that wasn’t it. Trailing by three touchdowns against Tumwater’s elite defense, a comeback felt impossible.
Tumwater went on to pitch a shutout and win the game, 42-0, and will play for the 2A state championship next weekend at Husky Stadium.
“Getting those two turnovers — turnovers are key, especially at this point in the playoffs,” said Tumwater linebacker Beckett Wall, who lived in the Archbishop Murphy backfield all afternoon. “Getting them was just enough to get our team going.”
About that defense: is this group the best since Tumwater beat Steilacoom in the 2019 state championship game at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup?
“They’ve got a chance to be that way,” Tumwater coach Willie Garrow said. “They’re really good. They play really hard. Coaches do a really good job of getting them in the right spot. They’re working their tails off. They’re playing exceptionally well.”
Wall, defensive lineman Malijah Tucker and the rest of Tumwater’s vaunted defense completely shut down Archbishop Murphy’s Wing-T on Saturday.
“A lot of the key kids that play are seniors, last year they were juniors,” Garrow said. “It helps having that extra year of experience, especially at nose tackle, our two inside linebackers are all seniors.”
Looking up at the scoreboard and seeing 42-0 — in a state semifinal game — must be a surreal feeling.
“It’s awesome,” Wall said. “It just means we’re doing our job.”
Cash Short ran for three touchdowns in the win, all in the first half. Tumwater quarterback Jaxon Budd accounted for a pair of touchdowns, one a 60-yard pass to Sunny Nguyen and the other an 11-yard keeper. Nguyen also had a 74-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
The win sets up a likely rematch with No. 2 Anacortes, which beat Tumwater in last year’s 2A state championship game, 60-30.
“It’s definitely been on our mind,” Wall said. “Summer workouts and just around the locker room, we have signs that say ‘60-30.’ We always remember that. We wanted to make sure we can get back and we can win it.”
Garrow summed up last year’s performance at Husky Stadium succinctly.
“We got our butts kicked a year ago,” he said. “We’ve wanted for 12 months now to get an opportunity to go play again, whether it was those guys or someone else. We didn’t think that we played well in the state championship game last year.
“We thought we underperformed what we’re capable of, so we wanted an opportunity to get back there. It’s fun to have that.”
