‘Effortless’: Puyallup rolls Sumner, cements status as 4A title contender
The Sumner onlookers packing Sparks Stadium’s visiting bleachers couldn’t believe what they were seeing, as if the western scoreboard at Puyallup’s longtime venue had displayed one giant typo.
It was a position the defending 4A-champion Spartans almost never find themselves in — shut down, shut out, and on the ropes. And what was advertised as the South Sound’s Game of the Year never materialized, unraveling from the opening whistle as Puyallup picked apart a stout Spartans defense and never looked back.
The halftime scoreboard nobody saw coming: Puyallup 31, Sumner 0.
“We don’t get complacent,” Puyallup receiver J’Isaiah Mitchell said. “We’re in the locker room, we’re coming out for the second half, and it’s 0-0. We’ve still got to put up a fight. Knowing Sumner, that’s a great team overall. Just putting up the fight and just having fun.”
Puyallup didn’t just win the fight. They trounced it. The Vikings rolled their 4A SPSL rivals from The Valley, 58-22, in a game that was decided before intermission, asserting themselves as the area’s best team with legitimate 4A title aspirations.
“We don’t even know how good we are,” first-year Vikings head coach DJ Mims said. “We’re playing these games, and it just seems easy. Every game, we start off walking the field, four or five plays, and we score right away. It just looks effortless.
“But we have a lot of things to clean up. I just think for us, it’s about turning the corner and getting Puyallup back to where it’s supposed to be. This is a blue blood program. It’s a historic program. It has a lot of football tradition. The community loves it. It was a great environment tonight, and we just want to make sure the product on the field matches that.”
Following their postgame handshakes near midfield, several Vikings referenced The News Tribune’s State Game of the Week prediction of a 24-21 Sumner win that put chips on each of their shoulders: “24-21 what? 24-21 whaaat?”
“We take things personal,” Mims said. “A lot of the predictions and a lot of the people that watch football… I’m like, have you watched us on film? Because if you’re just checking the box score, you don’t really know how good we are and how that’s translating to the scores that are happening. For me, this was a testament to the hard work, and everybody got to see that on full display.”
A Sumner offense accustomed to moving the ball at will ran into brick walls. Spartans QB Nate Donavan was rarely comfortable, forced out of the pocket for off-schedule throws. And despite a 22-point second half, Puyallup matched the pace — firing on all cylinders with an embarrassment of roster riches from top to bottom.
The opening drive was the first of countless examples, a foreshadowing of what was to come on a clear night at Sparks: Puyallup RB Briytan Bailey quieted the Sumner crowd with a two-yard touchdown less than three minutes after kickoff, capping a dominant possession composed entirely of runs.
Puyallup’s Malcolm Akuffo scored next on an even-niftier run: The Emerald Ridge transfer rolled over the back of a Sumner defender, never touching the ground on a 10-yard touchdown inside the right guard. The Vikings led, 14-0, after one quarter.
“The past two years, we’ve been at their home stadium,” Mitchell said. “It felt great for them to have to come over to our home stadium and deal with our student section and our band.
“I guess they just couldn’t handle it.”
Akuffo scored twice in his Puyallup debut alongside QB Noah Smith. Both missed the first four games of the season due to the WIAA’s new transfer rule, making players ineligible for 40 percent of the maximum allowable contests in the school year following their transfer. The powerful Puyallup back took a designed draw play to the left edge, breaking a tackle before crossing the goal line on a three-yard run early in the second quarter. Advantage Puyallup, 21-0.
Smith’s best play arrived five minutes later, when Puyallup’s quarterback escaped a sack, rolled to his left, and found Mitchell over the middle. The 6-foot-5, three-star receiver did the rest, refusing to go down on a 37-yard touchdown. Cue the fight song.
“I think this game definitely puts us on the map,” Mitchell said, “proving to everybody that we’re definitely a top contender.”
Puyallup’s Braylon Bowie delivered a 35-yard field goal in the closing moments of the first half that put the Vikings ahead by 31.
Puyallup receiver Lawson Looker scored twice in the second half, including a 77-yard catch-and-run down the right sideline before his six-yard touchdown in the fourth. Freshman linebacker Kitiona Tupua brought in a tipped Donavan pass for an interception on the next play from scrimmage, rumbling for a pick-six that extended Puyallup’s lead to a game-high 38 points, 45-7.
And Mitchell provided the fireworks in the final minutes, soaring for a highlight-reel grab over the middle for a 22-yard score. Statement made: Puyallup had dropped 58 points on the defending champs.
“I knew the DB was going to bite on my leverage, so I just hit him inside with a double move. Touchdown,” Mitchell said. “My quarterback, Noah, and I have been working all offseason. We just have that connection.”
Smith completed 15-of-26 passes for 326 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception by Sumner’s Izear Ferguson. Mitchell had 10 catches for 202 yards and two scores.
Puyallup’s Bailey took 17 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown. Sumner RB Lance McGee had nine rushes for 88 yards and an impressive 69-yard score that wiped away a shutout in the third quarter.
Sumner receiver Braylon Pope caught a 15-yard touchdown in the third quarter, and Israel Nabors erupted for a 56-yard touchdown run in the fourth — all of it after Puyallup had spoiled the prospect of a big-time matchup between 4A SPSL heavyweights.
“The growth is (our) mentality,” Mitchell said. “A lot of our players came into the season not knowing what was going to happen, especially because last year, everybody said we had all of the talent but didn’t do anything with it.
“We’re here to prove them wrong.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2025 at 11:19 PM.
