The W.F. West football team sat within punching distance at the break, but saw the top-ranked 2A team in the state do its thing to pull away, as Lynden rode out 33-7 winners in Chehalis.
Then again, the Bearcats didn’t make things easy for themselves, fumbling the ball away three times on snaps and throwing three interceptions.
“Our hats are off to Lynden; they’re a great football team and a great football program,” head coach Dan Hill said. “Offensively, they do a great job of running the football. I’m disappointed in the fact we didn’t perform tonight how we should be. We had a lot of mistakes. It was nothing Lynden did, it was all self-inflicted.”
The miscues helped the Lions finish the game with 20 unanswered points, after Gavin Fugate plunged into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown run to trim the guests’ lead to 13-7 late in the second quarter.
From there, a kickoff return and a couple untimely penalties let the Lions get off a 40-yard field goal as time expired on the half to push the advantage back out to two possessions.
Lynden made it 24-7 midway through the third, and on the very first play of W.F. West’s ensuing possession, a bad snap rolled into the end zone, where the guests fell on it for another touchdown.
The miscues wrapped in the fourth quarter, when a botched punt snap turned into a safety.
“We pretty much gave them 17 points in the (second half),” Hills said.
W.F. West finished with 158 total yards, including just 33 on the ground. For its part, Lynden rumbled its way to 208 rushing yards.
It was always going to be a big ask scheduling the defending state champions, but Hill and his staff hope Friday’s experience can pay off for their squad moving forward.
“There was no second-guessing that we wanted to schedule Lynden,” he said. “We were happy we played them. We learned a lot tonight. To tell you the truth, we can play with these guys, and we know it now.”
Having played two top-10 teams in two weeks to open the season, the Bearcats sit at a 1-1 split. They’ll enter 2A Evergreen Conference play next weekend, hosting Shelton.
