2B Football: Napavine Survives 31-28 Semifinal Thriller With Toledo

The weather was less than ideal, but the show Napavine and Toledo put on Saturday night was championship-caliber.

And the championship is exactly what the undefeated Tigers will play for on Friday, thanks to their rolicking 31-28 win over the previously-unbeaten Indians.

With standing water blanketing spots of Centralia’s turf, Napavine scored twice in 90 seconds early in the fourth quarter, helped along by a key fumble recovery from Noah Lantz, and turned a 21-18 deficit into a 31-21 lead — marking the sixth and final lead change in the State 2B semifinal matchup.

Napavine (13-0) will take on Liberty (Spangle) at 4 p.m. Friday in the Tacoma Dome in its third-straight championship appearance. The Tigers beat Liberty in last year’s quarterfinals, 34-7, also in Centralia.

The teams combined for nearly 700 yards of offense in constant rain, and combined for 40 second-half points to turn a close game into a thriller. Tiger quarterback Wyatt Stanley hit 14 of 22 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns, while Toledo’s Dalton Yoder passed for 69 yards and ran for 107 and a score.

“There’s good football games and there’s great football games, and this was a great football game,” Napavine coach Josh Fay said. “It’s really unfortunate that someone had to lose this game.”

It was the closest game of the season for the Tigers, who beat La Conner 24-14 in the regular season but beyond that hadn’t had a game closer than 26 points — and had won 10 games with a running clock. Toledo’s 7-6 lead late in the first quarter was the first time all season Napavine had trailed, and the Indians’ 21-18 lead in the third quarter was, and remains, the biggest deficit the Tigers have had this year.

“It would have been easy for our guys to quit, but for not playing in any games like this — close games like this — especially being down, I thought our guys battled,” Stanley said. “We thought it would come down to who wanted it more, and they wanted it just as bad as we did.”

Fay, on the sidelines, offered simple advice at that juncture.

“I just told those guys, ‘Hey, man, just score more points,’” Fay said.

That third-quarter Toledo lead came on Yoder’s 57-yard quarterback keeper. Toledo’s Ethan Buck then recovered the onside kick, and the Indians worked the ball down to the 14 before going for it on fourth-and-3 and coming up just short.

It was a key defensive stop for the Tigers, who allowed 285 rushing yards in the win.

“It was communication of mixing in some cut up front, some adjustments with our linebackers, moving them into different positions — just kind of a cocktail of putting some different things together,” Fay said. “Because, individually, each one of those things didn’t work.”

Toledo coach Jeremy Thibault had a simpler explanation.

“They put Stanley in (at linebacker). He was the guy,” he said. “And they were taking calculated guesses at which hole we were running, and maybe if we go right instead of left, or vice versa, but we go with what we’re good at, and I thought we crapped the bed down there in the end zone.”

After dodging a bullet, the Tigers took advantage. An eight-play drive ended when Stanley went found Mac Fagerness open in the middle of the field for a 28-yard touchdown, and two plays later Lantz recovered the key fumble on a stymied sweep play by Toledo.

The change of possession put Napavine 20 yards from the goal line. Sam Fagerness picked up the first 11 on a run, and Cole Van Wyck did the rest of the work on a 9-yard run, breaking free of a few defenders and bouncing his way to the outside to score.

Napavine got another big stop on fourth-and-2 to end Toledo’s next drive, but a quick three-and-out gave the Indians life. Ouellette ran the ball four times to pick up 31 yards, and Yoder found tight end Gabe Fuentes in the end zone for a 23-yard score that made it a one-possession game at 31-28.

With 2:29 to play, however, the Tigers had the clock on their side. Stanley picked up 3 yards on third-and-1 for a first down with 1:27 to play, and a few victory formations took care of the rest.

“Sometimes you’re on top, and sometimes you’re on the bottom,” Thibault said. “You can’t question their effort. They played a hell of a football game, against a hell of a football team.”

The first half featured 12 flags and nearly 130 yards in penalties, which helped keep the scoring to a minimum.

Napavine opened the scoring on its second drive, after recovering an Indian fumble on the 24-yard line. Stanley broke off a 22-yard run, hurdling a would-be tackler along the way, and two plays later hit Mac Fagerness with a deep 36-yard touchdown pass.

Toledo responded with a 12-play, 61-yard drive, highlighted by a 26-yard completion from Yoder to Gabe Fuentes that set up first and goal. Marcus Ouellette capped things off with a 3-yard touchdown run, and Andreas Malunat’s kick gave Toledo a 7-6 lead.

The Tigers struck again in the second, with Stanley finding Jordan Purvis on the 10-yard line and Purvis doing the rest of the work with his legs for an 18-yard touchdown. The Tigers forced a three-and-out and had a final shot at the end zone late in the second quarter, but a flag backed them up to the 30-yard line and a fourth-down pass from Stanley — pressured heavily by a blitzing Yoder — fell incomplete.

Toledo opened the second half with a 58-yard drive, scoring on a 5-yard run from Marcus Ouellette to go up 14-12.

Napavine quickly answered, recovering an onside kick at midfield, getting 37 yards on a completion to Lantz and scoring when Stanley pushed his way through the middle and into the end zone from 4 yards out to put Napavine up 18-14.

Ouellette added 105 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries for Toledo, while Mac Fagerness caught five passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns for Napavine.

“It was great that we were playing here in Centralia, No. 1 versus No. 2, and I think we could both be the No. 1 team in the state the way we played tonight,” Sam Fagerness said. “That’s what a football game’s supposed to look like, especially when it’s a final-four one.”

Final Game

It was the last game for Toledo seniors Yoder, Fuentes, Ouellette, Raven Nyberg, Jackson Kuzminsky, Dawson Pudelko, Jordan Hill, Troy Struzan, Seth Nichols, T.J. Demery and Dakota Robins.

Yoder, Fuentes, Robins, Nichols and Robins, in particular, have been starters for several years for the Indians, and Thibault — in his fifth season in Toledo — said they’ll be missed.

“They put the program on their back and brought it from 3-6, and not very good, their freshman year to being — I think this game could have been for the championship,” Thibault said.

“You don’t know until you line another kid up there. You don’t miss a Dakota Robins or a Hoiseck until they’re not there,” he added. “That’ll be a big thing, a big adjustment for me. They meant the world to us.”