Pateros Rolls Past Touchet For B-8 Crown

Pat Hunter passed for seven touchdowns and the Pateros Billygoats finally won the big one.

A loser in the finals in three of the previous four seasons, Pateros captured the Washington high school Class B-8 championship with a 76-20 victory over defending champion Touchet Saturday at the WIAA/U.S. Bank Gridiron Classic.

Hunter, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior who wants to play football in college, had two scoring passes each to Shaun Moore (72, 33 yards), Adams James (14, 36) and John Neuneker (46, 8). He tied the B-8 finals record of seven touchdown passes set by Napavine’s Rob McNelly in 1976 against Prescott.

Hunter completed 18 of 27 passes for 465 yards - a B-8 finals record - and wasn’t intercepted. His other scoring pass was a 40-yarder to Garrett Zwar.

“I’ve worked my whole life for this moment,” Hunter said.

“We weren’t interested in records,” Pateros coach Joe Worsham said. “It was more important to win the state championship.”

Neuneker scored on kickoff returns of 84 and 88 yards. His 88-yarder was the longest in a B-8 championship game.

Pateros (12-0) reversed last year’s title-game outcome, a 38-24 Touchet victory over the Billygoats in the Kingdome.

The Indians (11-1) shut out Inchelium 40-0 in last week’s semifinals. They got a touchdown pass and a touchdown run from quarterback Michael Adams on Saturday, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Adams completed 11 of 22 passes for 88 yards with one interception and picked up 85 yards on 11 carries.

Pateros 76, Touchet 20

Pateros 8 24 28 16 - 76

Touchet 0 14 6 0 - 20

Pat-Shaun Moore 72 pass from Pat Hunter (John Neuneker pass from Hunter)

Tou-Michael Adams 2 run (Adams run)

Pat-Moore 33 pass from Hunter (Garrett Zwar pass from Hunter)

Tou-Tom Ewing 8 run (pass failed)

Pat-Zwar 40 pass from Hunter (Neuneker pass from Hunter)

Pat-Neuneker 48 pass from Hunter (Parker Barth pass from Hunter)

Pat-Neuneker 84 kickoff return (Neuneker run)

Pat-Adam James 14 pass from Hunter (run failed)

Pat-A. James 36 pass from Hunter (Neuneker pass from Hunter)

Tou-Tim Miller 10 pass from Adams (pass failed)

Pat-Neuneker 88 kickoff return (pass failed)

Pat-Brandon Zahn 1 run (Zwar pa s from Hunter)

Pat-Neuneker 6 pass from Hunter (Paul James)

Tou Pat First downs 14 18 Rushes-yards 44-209 20-52 Passing 88 465 Return Yards 119 213 Comp-Att-Int 11-23-1 18-27-0 Punts 3-38 2-41 Fumbles-Lost 4-2 1-0 Penalties-Yards 7-42 2-20 Time of Possession 27:21 20:39

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Touchet, Ewing 22-89, Adams 11-85, Miller 3-15, A.J. Trejo 3-1, Alfredo Lomeli 3-5, Bill Clarke 1-2, Lorenzo Michel 1-0. Pateros, Zach Ross 3-22, Steve Werth 4-21, A. James 1-10, B. Zahn 3-5, Hunter 4-0, Nathan Sandy 1-(minus 1), Neuneker 1-(minus 2), Moore 3-(minus 3).

PASSING - Touchet, Adams 11-22-1-88, Jake Bussell 0-1-0-0. Pateros, Hunter 18-27-0-465.

RECEIVING - Touchet, Miller 4-48, Ewing 2-28, Bussell 2-6, Michel 1-3, Ben Espinoza 1-2, Don Carlislee 1-1. Pateros, Neuneker 5-148, Moore 4-133, James 4-103, Zwar 4-67, Barth 1-14.