Tigercats cap perfect season with 1B title
TACOMA – Garrett Blauert admittedly was exhausted.
After tying a state championship game record with 38 carries, he should have been. But Blauert also was smiling broadly.
That’s because he and his LaCrosse-Washtucna-Kahlotus teammates had just come from behind to win a 64-62 thriller over Wishkah Valley at the Tacoma Dome to capture their fifth State 1B football title in seven seasons.
The Tigercats (13-0) ran their playoff winning streak to 15 games.
Playing simply as LaCrosse-Washtucna, the Tigercats won consecutive championships from 2002-05. The team added students from Kahlotus this season en route to another title.
“This is real satisfying right now,” Tigercats coach Jeff Nelson said. “We’ll take it. It’s all business (in the playoffs).”
The Tigercats rode the legs of Blauert and Cody Bennett to victory on this night. Tigercats quarterback Justin Aune scored the winner from 1 yard out with 1 minute, 10 seconds left, but Blauert scored four times in the first half as LWK built a 46-30 lead at the half.
The 5-foot-10 junior finished with 295 yards rushing on those 38 carries.
“That was the game of my life,” Blauert said. “I’ve been trying all year to set some records. That’s one that’s worth it, in the state championship.”
In what became the second-highest scoring 1B title game in history, trailing only Napavine’s 74-60 win over Prescott in 1976, it took two defensive plays to get LWK the victory.
First, the Tigercats stuffed Wishkah Valley (10-2) quarterback Nick Marsh on a fourth-and-1 from the LWK 29 with 2:22 left. Then, after the Tigercats went 71 yards in four plays to get the eventual winner, Aune intercepted a long pass attempt on the Loggers’ next play to seal the win.
“We knew (Johnny) Boggs and Marsh would make plays,” Nelson said. “But they just continued to make play after play. And it comes down to one defensive play.”
The teams combined to set five 8-man championship game records, and flirted with several others.
LWK set the title game records for most total rushing yards with 499, most rushing attempts with 66 and most first downs with 30. Wishkah Valley set the highest losing score in 1B history (62 points) and the most total return yards with 302.
“I knew it would be like this because we played them once before,” Blauert said. “It’s just crazy. Both of us are just very offensive and couldn’t play defense on either side.”
LWK defeated Wishkah Valley 44-38 at home on Sept. 13.