2B Football: Tigers Mop Up Mountaineers With Six Straight Touchdowns

Rainier rolled into Centralia looking to prove that their 22-0 loss to Napavine three weeks ago was a fluke influenced more by the torrential wind and rain of the evening rather than any shortcoming in personnel. That effort got off on the right foot out of the gate as the Mountaineers needed just three plays and 1:30 of game time on their first drive to travel 62 yards for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead.

That hopscotching drive wound up representing all of the good news for Rainier on the evening though as Napavine responded in emphatically with six straight touchdowns for a 40-7 victory in the opening round of the 2B State playoffs.

“They came out and punched us right in the mouth because we weren’t expecting it,” said Napavine’s wide receiver/defensive back Jordan Purvis. “I knew right away that we needed to come out and fix that.”

Purvis did plenty on his own to help ensure that happy final tally for the Tigers, finishing the contest with a game-high seven catches for 160 yards, including a 53-yard touchdown snag on a soaring skyball from Dawson Stanley. Purvis also made a pair of circus-style catches in the game that went for more than 30-yards each and on one occasion raced across the field to knock an errant pass out of the clutches of a Mountaineer defender.

“Jordan is as solid of a receiver as we’ve had here,” said Napavine coach Josh Fay, who noted Purvis’ length, athleticism and sticky hands as the skills that set him up for success.

After giving up that quick score to start the game Napavine needed eight minutes to travel 60 yards to the end zone. Noah Lantz capped that drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.

In the second quarter Napavine added to their tally with a 4:48 drive that traveled 62 yards and ended on a one-yard quarterback keeper by Stanley.

The second half was all Napavine as the Tigers forced five straight Rainier possessions to end on downs and punched in their first four drives for scores. First Stanley connected with Purvis on that 53-yard touchdown strike, then, in the fourth quarter Noah Lantz found paydirt for the second time of the night on a four yard touchdown run.

“Noah is probably our most dynamic guy,” said Fay, who noted that Lantz had around 800 all-purpose yards during the regular season. On Friday Lantz finished the game with two touchdowns (one rushing and one receiving) to go with 47 rushing yards and 31 receiving yards.

Napavine scored twice more in that final frame thanks to a six-yard touchdown pass to Lantz from Stanley, and then a 20-yard Stanley scoring saunter to seal the deal with 2:33 left in the game.

Stanley finished the game with 194 yards passing, two throwing touchdowns, 95 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.

“He had an amazing game both running and throwing the ball,” said Purvis of Stanley. “If he could do that every week that’s all we could ask for.”

After allowing just 9 yards of total offense and zero points against Rainier in their week 8 mudfest, Napavine allowed less than 200 yards on Friday, 62 of which came on the Mountaineers lone scoring drive to start the game. Meanwhile Napavine was able to muster nearly 400 yards of total offense in the winner-moves-on, loser-goes-home rematch.

“We really like where our defense is out right now and our offensive line is really figuring it out,” said Lantz.

Napavine (10-1) will play the winner of Saturday’s Toledo versus Concrete game next week.