TUMWATER — The Tumwater football team didn’t waste any time at all Friday in its 2A State Round of 32 matchup against Renton.
Despite kicking off to start the night, the undefeated T-Birds needed just six plays to get on the board. Fourteen plays into the evening, it was a three-possession game, and the hosts — despite rolling out first their JVs and then dipping into their C-Team — never slowed down in a 70-8 blowout.
“The kids kind of jumped on them and did what they were supposed to do in that situation,” Tumwater coach William Garrow said.
Knowing that things might get out of hand in a hurry, Garrow opened up the playbook early and junior Jaxon Budd took full advantage, putting together about as good a game as possible for someone who took off his helmet for good two minutes into the second quarter.
The Tumwater quarterback ended each of the T-Birds’ first two possessions — both of which began deep in Renton territory after fumble recoveries — with passing touchdowns, first to Wyatt Chase, and then to Jake Dillon.
“Everything just opened up perfectly,” Budd said. “The line blocked good, and receivers ran good routes.”
Then, after a Cash Short pick-six made it 21-0 with seven minutes still left in the first quarter, the T-Birds let Budd do something new: run.
Tumwater has made an identity out of its run game, and spread the ball out around a stable of running backs in recent years. But with the state tournament proper looming, Garrow and his coaching staff decided to give the T-Birds’ upcoming opponents one more element to worry about, and dialed up a quarterback draw out of the shotgun on third down.
“He’s got good legs, he’s got good speed, so we just wanted to let him try and run a little bit,” Garrow said. “We thought it would be a good time to let him give it a whirl.”
Forty-three yards later, it was 28-0.
“I saw a huge hole,” Budd said. “The line opened it up, and I just ran.”
The junior finished his day a perfect 3-for-3 for 64 yards and the two touchdowns to go along with his rushing score, though he had another 53-yard touchdown called back for a hold.
“Jaxon’s a really good kid,” Garrow said. “He works hard. He’s a really good athlete, very talented, but for the most part, he does what is asked of him, which is really good. I know he’d like to throw it more and he’d like to run it more, but he’s done a good job of doing what he’s being asked to do right now, which is important.”
All told, 16 T-Birds combined to carry the ball for 263 yards, a number limited by the amount of short fields Tumwater faced — the hosts ran two plays on their side of midfield in the first half — and the fact that the running clock began after the T-Birds took a 49-0 lead with 9:18 left in the second quarter.
On defense, Tumwater put the clamps on a Renton offense that all but abandoned the run game after the first quarter. At halftime, the Redhawks, who had to cycle between three quarterbacks due to an early injury to their starter, were 3-for-14 passing with three picks for 43 yards — 42 of which came on a Hail Mary to end the half that didn’t make it to the red zone.
The T-Birds finished with six total takeaways. They allowed 190 total yards, but 97 of those came in Renton’s final two drives, after Tumwater had already reached the 70-point mark.
Tumwater will learn its official seeding and first-round opponent for the 2A state tournament on Sunday.
