ROCHESTER — Ethan Rodriguez didn’t mince words when asked about Rochester’s loss to Tenino last Friday.
“We thought we were gonna walk in and win that game,” Rodriguez said. “We underestimated them.”
Even after the loss, the Warriors still had everything to play for at home against Hoquiam on Friday, and they made sure not to make the same mistake again.
Rodriguez took the first play of scrimmage 54 yards for a touchdown, kicking off a 42-0 blowout win that gave Rochester the 1A Evergreen title, the school’s first league title since 1999.
“It felt great,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone was pumped up. We just kept going and we didn’t stop.”
After the first touchdown, the Warriors recovered an onside kick, and it took Rodriguez less than three minutes to find the end zone again.
“We kind of played on our heels a little bit (last week),” Rochester coach AJ Easley said. “We decided this week that we were gonna be us. We were gonna set the tempo from the start.”
The Rochester defense kept getting the ball back quickly, and Rodriguez continued to run all over the Hoquiam defense.
With 11 minutes left in the third quarter, Rodriguez had already rushed for 143 yards and four touchdowns.
“I think he’s the best player in the league,” Easley said. “He’s something special. We obviously have a lot of lineman and backs to help get him going, but he’s pretty special.”
Defensively, Rochester didn’t allow a first down until Hoquiam’s fifth drive of the game, and they even got on the board themselves with a safety thanks to a bad snap on a Hoquiam punt.
The Rochester defense ended up allowing only seven completions on 24 passing attempts, and it allowed just 36 total yards of offense.
In the team huddle after the game, the Warriors shared hugs, took photos, and gave Easley the Gatorade bath before he addressed the team.
Easley was emotional during and after he spoke to the team, saying a league title is the culmination of the effort his players and staff have put in over the last several weeks.
It made it even more special, Easley said, to have alumni from the 1979 team, which also won a league title, in attendance to watch.
“To bring a championship back here,” Easley said. “It was awesome … Just unbelievably proud of our coaches, kids, and community.”
As for Rodriguez and his teammates, this is the first time they’ve seen the Warriors win league.
“We’ve had a few rough patches over the years,” Rodriguez said. “But now that we're winning, it feels great.”
Rochester is through to the 1A Round of 24 next week, a round in which the 12 winners will head to the state tournament.
The Warriors (5-4, 3-1 1A Evergreen) will find out their opponent and location of their game on Sunday, which is when the seeding committee meets. Easley said that if the Warriors are a lower seed in their matchup, they could play the neutral-site game at Tiger Stadium in Centralia.
“We just gotta stay aggressive,” Rodriguez said. “And we have to keep on playing hard.”
Tenino loses season finale to Aberdeen
In another 1A Evergreen matchup, the Tenino Beavers lost their season finale to Aberdeen 22-7.
The Beavers and Bobcats ended the first quarter tied at seven, but Aberdeen was able to get into the end zone in the second and third while shutting out Tenino the rest of the way.
Tenino finishes its season 5-4 and will graduate nine seniors, including Austin Gonia, Jack Burkhardt and Michael Vassar.
