TACOMA — What’s better than a trip to the Tacoma Dome?

    Another trip to the Tacoma Dome, but with a big, shiny trophy on the line — a gold one at that, perfect for a gang of Pirates.

    Adna’s offense worked out a few kinks at halftime to put away Tacoma Baptist 25-11 here Saturday in the State 2B Football Tournament semifinals, earning the first win at the Tacoma Dome in school history and advancing to the state title game for the first time since 1989.

    “It’s about time,” Adna cornerback Colton Trotter said. “After four years, it’s finally worth the effort.”

    The final kickoff will come at 4 p.m. Saturday against Colfax — the top-ranked team in the state most of this season — again in the City of Destiny, with the state title on the line.

    Adna quarterback Kyle Grosshans racked up 326 yards of total offense and Anthony Tatum scored twice in an eight-second span in the third quarter to blow the game open.

     “It’s awesome,” Grosshans said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more. Now we’ve just got to win the next one.”

    The defense shined all 48 minutes for the Pirates. The Crusaders didn’t move the chains until three minutes into the second quarter and punted five times in the first half, finishing with a total of 34 yards on the ground. The first-half performance was especially comforting to Pirate coach KC Johnson, whose team held a slim 6-5 lead at the intermission after TB scored on a safety and a 31-yard field goal.

    “We just knew — if we play defense like we knew we can — if they don’t score again, we win 6-5,” Johnson said. “We just beat a heck of a good football team, is what happened.”

    The Pirates’ lone score before the break came on a 50-yard toss from Grosshans to Tatum, two plays after a 65-yard scoring run from Grosshans was called back on a holding penalty. A second touchdown — a 70-yard pass to Tatum — was negated by the same penalty on the Pirates’ next series, and Adna lost a pair of fumbles in the first half.

    “It was the whole atmosphere. We got off to a shaky start,” Grosshans said. “In the second half, we turned it on and played Adna football.”

    Tatum, in particular, found his groove. From the Tacoma 43, the receiver dropped a short swing pass on second down. On the next snap, he caught the same pass and cut through the Crusader defense to add six points to the board. After the good PAT and ensuing kickoff, Tatum scooped up a fumble and zipped 28 yards up the right side of the field for another score. In the span of 8 seconds the Pirate lead went from 1 to 14, and the defensive battle had turned one-sided. Grosshans added a 58-yard scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter, and the Crusaders finally found the end zone on a 21-yard pass from Griffin Lowe to Kyle Delegard late in the fourth quarter.

    Tatum finished with 179 receiving yards on five catches.

    “We just pulled together, and remembered what we were fighting for,” Trotter said of the second-half resurgence. “We’ve gotta get the gold ball. We’re not stopping here.”

    Tatum, appropriately, wore a blue Superman shirt under his jersey during the game — a shirt he borrowed from a friend — as a good-luck charm, as he has in the last four games. In that span, he’s racked up nearly 420 receiving yards and around 300 rushing yards with nine touchdowns.

    “I can’t even rank it,” he said, on where the win falls among his prep athletic achievements, which includes setting the state’s all-time punt-return touchdown record a few weeks ago. “It’s a dream come true. For me to do it my senior year means the most.”

    For Tacoma Baptist, Lowe completed 10 of 25 pass attempts for 144 yards, but Saturday was the first time the Crusaders (12-1) hadn’t scored at least 22 points in a game all season.

    Adna, with the win, improves to 40-7 over the past four seasons and 12-0 this year.

    “I don’t know if any other team’s won 40 and not played in here,” Johnson mused, on this year’s seniors’ gridiron run.

    Notes: Adna sophomore Bubba Lara ran for 66 yards on 12 carries. … Tacoma Baptist came into the contest averaging nearly 44 points a game. … It was just the third time all season Adna has allowed double-digit scoring. … Tacoma Baptist’s safety put the Crusaders up 2-0 in the second quarter, marking the first time all season the Pirates have trailed in a game.