Tumwater wide receiver Luke Reed breaks away from Sedro-Wolley quarterback Ty Peterson for a touchdown during the 2A state football playoff game Friday night at Tumwater District Stadium in Tumwater, Wash., Nov. 11, 2022. Sedro-Wolley won the game, 30-22 .
toverman@theolympian.com
Alex Overbey crouched in the Tumwater end of the team box, near the 30-yard line at Sid Otton Field, and watched in silence as Sedra-Woolley took a knee two plays to run out the final 49 seconds.
Teammates joined the T-Birds’ senior quarterback in consoling each other as their season ended Friday in a 30-22 loss to the Cubs in the Class 2A state quarterfinals. Overbay and the forward just scored 15 points in the final 7 minutes and 21 seconds of the game.
But Cedro-Wooley controlled a final, desperate side-pick attempt with 51 seconds left. With Tumwater running out of time-outs, last season’s runners-up had no chance to get the ball back in the dying seconds.
“Sedro-Woolley came out, they won the game in the first half,” Darkwater coach Bill Beaty said. “Having scored 30 points. They took it to us. Very proud of the way our kids finished tonight. We made mistakes. I thought we did a good job of putting those things away in the second half.”
Tumwater (9-2) held the Cubs (8-2) off the scoreboard in the second half. However, Sedra-Woolley still moved the football, spending big stretches of time with a pair of long drives — one each in the third and fourth quarters.
Those spurts limited the number of possessions, solidifying the position Sedra banked on in a big first half.
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Cubs shortstop Carsten Reynolds said. “But we came out ready to play.”
Offensively, Reynolds led a Sedra-Wooley team that scored touchdowns on all four possessions in the first half. After taking more than six minutes off the clock with a methodical 11-play, 62-yard drive to start the game, the Cubs set the tone.
“We like to get the ball first and see if we can get up early,” Sedra-Wooley coach Dave Ward said. “We like to build the running game.”
Cedro-Wooley did it, rushing for 224 of its 305 total yards. Reynolds accounted for 191 of those total yards on offense, rushing for 110 and the final touchdown in the first half on 11 carries, and adding 81 yards passing (five of 12).
Reynolds’ rushing touchdown was a dagger play for the Cubs. His acrobatic 35-yard dash, in which he spun out of one tackle, spun sideways to slide past two other would-be tacklers, then tiptoed along the left sideline, the final eight yards to reach the end zone with 19 seconds remaining left in the second quarter.
And it came less than two minutes after Austin Crossen extended Sedra-Woolley’s lead to 22-7 with a 7-yard run at 1:45 of the second quarter. Tumwater, trying to get back into the game, took the ball away on the opening drive, but couldn’t get a first down and was shutout with just 41 seconds left.
There are 59 seconds left in the half (five seconds were counted on the clock at the beginning). With the help of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the T-Bird on second-and-20 from the 50, the Cubs used just three plays to extend their lead.
“Unfortunately at this point in the season, if you win, you move on, you don’t go home,” Beaty said. “It’s sad to end the season, but I’m very proud of the way the kids have played all year. We’re very young, we only had a few returning starters and they’ve struggled all year.”
Faced with a big deficit, the T-Birds still tried to come back.
With 7:21 left, Charles Crawford capped the drive with a 7-yard run to make it two possessions, 30-14. Sedro-Wooley then drove with more than five minutes remaining before missing a fourth down at the Tumwater 20.
Overbay combined with a two-point run from Carlos Matheny with 51 seconds left to cut the gap to 30-22. This created a final opportunity for the side.
“We just unfortunately didn’t have enough time in the second half,” Beaty said. “The way our kids graduated, they graduated with great class and hard work.”
