2B FB: Tigers Top Tacoma Baptist, Punch Tacoma Dome Tickets

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    TACOMA — The win might not have been pretty, but the site of the Tigers’ next game — in their minds, anyway — couldn’t be any more beautiful.

    Napavine’s defense picked off four passes in the first half and survived a rocky second half to beat Tacoma Baptist 25-22 here Friday night in the quarterfinals of the State 2B Football Playoffs.

    The win puts the Tigers back in the Tacoma Dome for the first time since 2008, when Napavine beat Asotin for the state title.

    “It feels good,” Tiger quarterback Tucker Stanley, a freshman on the 2008 team, said. “It’s been a while.”

    Napavine, hampered by a steady rain of yellow flags through the game, took a 19-0 lead into the intermission, but needed a few timely first downs in the waning moments to keep the Crusaders at bay. Stanley provided 135 rushing yards on 23 carries, including runs of 11, 10 and 15 yards to move the chains and run out the clock at the end.

    “I thought we played about 38 minutes of some good football,” Tiger coach Josh Fay said. “Tacoma Baptist deserves some of that credit for giving us some problems.”

    The Tigers punted on their first drive, but Ty Lorton picked off a Tacoma Baptist pass on the Crusaders’ third play to give Napavine a 28-yard field. Three plays later Tucker Stanley found the end zone on a 3-yard run to give the Tigers’ the lead — which, as it turned out, they would never relinquish.

    Ro Sevilla stole a pass on the second play of the Crusaders’ second drive, which set up an eight-play, 63-yard drive consisting entirely of runs from Stanley and Layne Hellem dove in from a yard out to cap it. Tacoma Baptist’s next possession featured a third pick, on the 1-yard line by Sevilla, and set up another scoring drive. After a pair of delay-of-game penalties pushed a third-and-goal from the 5 back to the 15, Stanley hit Lorton for the Tigers’ third score.

    The Crusaders — with 6-foot-7, 320-pound Wisconsin recruit Walker Williams leading the way — woke up in the second half. Quarterback Taylor Martindale racked up 101 yards on keepers, scoring on a 10-yard run on his team’s first drive and hitting Kody Lyons for a 13-yard scoring reception on the next possession.

    With the lead cut to 19-14, it was the Tigers’ turn to wake up. Hellem found the end zone on the Tigers’ ensuing possession, which was highlighted by a 30-yard completion from Lorton to Stanley, to push the lead out to 25-14 with just over 6 minutes to go.

    “I don’t know if the urgency showed up all the sudden, or if we figured we’d better do something,” Fay said, “but I thought our guys up front got a nice surge there, and our running backs hit the holes pretty hard.”

    but the Crusaders answered with an 11-play, 67-yard drive that Martindale finished off with a 12-yard run, and ran in the conversion, to cut the lead to 3 with 3 1/2 minutes to go — but the Tigers’ managed to chew up enough clock for Martindale and keep the Crusaders from getting a final shot at the win.

    “I think our offense kind of stepped it up,” Stanley said. “As long as our offense was going, it kind of backed up our defense. We were letting them drive on us, and without our offense there, we were in trouble.”

    The offensive line also managed to keep the powerful Williams in check.

    “The last two weeks I’ve watched these guys play, he’s in the backfield ripping guys down,” Fay said. “He wasn’t the guy causing problems in the backfield. He caused a lot of problems, but not in the backfield.”

    Hellem finished with 62 yards on 15 carries, and Lorenzo Brown added an interception for Napavine. Martindale finished with 142 rushing yards on 20 carries and completed 14 of 22 passes for 124 yards, with Scott Peterson nabbing seven passes for 73 yards.

    The Tigers were hit with nine penalties for 90 yards, while Tacoma Baptist drew one flag, assessed in the final minute, for 5 yards.

    The Tigers (11-1) will play next Saturday in the Tacoma Dome against the winner of today’s Adna/Morton-White Pass game, which is set for 7 p.m. at Centralia’s Tiger Stadium.

    Notes: The Tigers beat Morton-White Pass 14-7 in the regular season, but lost to Adna 26-0. ... The Tigers have made the quarterfinals of the state playoffs four years in a row.

At Tacoma

TIGERS 25, CRUSADERS 22

Napavine         13    6     0    6     —25



Tacoma Bapt.    0    0      7    15    —22

Scoring Summary

    NAP — Tucker Stanley 3-yard run; Zach Wichert kick

    NAP — Layne Hellem 1-yard run; kick blocked

    NAP — Stanley 15-yard pass to Ty Lorton; kick failed

    TB — Taylor Martindale 10-yard run; Brandon Hughey kick

    TB — Martindale 13-yard pass to Kody Lyons; Hughey kick

    NAP — Hellem 1-yard run; kick failed

    TB — Martindale 12-yard run; Zach Finley run

 

Team Stats        NAP    TB

First Downs           12    14

Rushing Yards      203    146

Passing Yards         52    124

Total Yards           255    270

Comp-Att-Int     2-5-0    14-23-4

Fumbles/Lost        0/0    0/0

Penalties/Yards    9/90    1/5

Individual Stats

    Rushing: NAP — Stanley 23/135, Hellem 15/62; TB — Martindale 20/142

    Passing: NAP — Stanley 2-4/22, Ty Lorton 1-1/30; TB — Martindale 14-22/124

    Receiving: NAP — Stanley 1/30; TB — Scott Peterson 7/73