Terrific Tigers

TACOMA – When two teams of destiny squared off in the final football game of Gridiron Classic XIII, something had to give.

Destiny’s Darling in this case was Lewis and Clark as Taylor Eglet found wide-open Jordan Hanson for a 51-yard touchdown with 1 minute, 4 seconds remaining in the State 4A championship Saturday in the Tacoma Dome to rally the Tigers past Bothell 21-14 and become part of Greater Spokane League and school lore.

It was the second score in the final 6:10 of the game and the victory produced Spokane’s fourth State 4A champion and was the first on the field in school history. (LC won the mythical title in 1967.)

LC trailed 7-0 and again 14-7 with 9:40 left, but each time found a way to get the job done.

“Back in August when I predicted us to win the league it was the wrong thing I was picking,” coach Tom Yearout said. “I knew we had good players, but I didn’t know they had that much heart.”

The game began with undertones of last week’s Bothell game against Ferris, when the Cougars took the opening drive for a score and made it look easy.

Johnny Hekker mixed passes, including a 27-yarder outside to receiver Ben Moschel, with the runs by Jonathan Kirschner and Patrick Otterbech to cover 71 yards in 4:30 and the early 7-0 advantage.

It wasn’t until late in the quarter that LC’s defense figured things out. Michael Kody and DJ McNeil tossed Kirschner for a 12-yard loss and Charles Taylor stuffed Otterbech 4 yards behind the scrimmage line.

Then, Bothell had only 13 more yards of its 103 halftime total thereafter and Shaw, who was stifled early, ran 16 times for 88 yards, spearheading a second-quarter, 50-yard game-tying march.

“We couldn’t duplicate their speed and intensity in practice,” LC defensive coordinator Jeff Reyburn said. “But I knew we’d be OK. We run one defense the whole game and call but one play. We’re just tougher than everybody else.”

The Tigers had the ball 11 of the final 14 minutes of the first half.

Eglet had a couple of completions, 16 yards to Hanson and a 7-yard TD to Alex Gauper, for the tie by intermission. He just missed long over the top to Chris Martin, or else the Tigers would have had the go-ahead score 2 minutes inside the second period.

That’s how the score remained until Otterbech took a wicked lick, but he barely flinched and sprinted 53-yards to put the Cougars ahead 14-7.

The Tigers covered 74 yards in nine plays to tie with Alex Shaw, who rushed for 176 yards on 37 carries, scattering Cougars on a 10-yard run that capped the drive.

Then, following an interception by defensive tackle Steve Johnson, the Tigers took just five plays for Eglet and Hanson to produce the winner. The TD came when Eglet sprinted left, elected to run and changed his mind.

“Coach told me if nothing was there to run 10 yards get out of bounds and we’d do something else,” he said. “The corner came up and Jordan did a good job of getting vertical.”

There were plenty of accolades to go around. Shaw laid a lick on a defender to free Eglet in addition to his fifth straight 30-carry effort.

“If you ask a high school back to do that for five weeks in a row against good teams, that’s a good football player,” Yearout said.

There was Johnson, the dominating lineman who got his pick at LC’s 30 with Bothell driving, at the defining moment of the game.

“How fitting for a young man who all he does is work hard and is an undersized interior linemen – to read a screen delay rout and make a lifetime memory,” Yearout said.

There was Hanson, the first-year football player, catching the winning touchdown for a state championship team. Yearout called him a gamer in LC’s most important contests.

“We’ve always been a team that responds well,” Hanson said. “Taylor was scrambling, the line gave him great protection and this is amazing.”

There was the defense on which LC hung its hat all season long, denying Bothell for most of the game and the offensive line that gave Shaw running room.

Shaw was asked what gave him the greatest satisfaction, his rushing performance or the key block. He answered that it wasn’t about individual honors, but about playing with this team of resolve.

“It doesn’t matter how many losses you have during the year,” he said after ending Bothell’s unbeaten season by the identical score the Cougars (13-1) lost by a year ago in this game. “This is what you play for.”

Eglet summed it up: “Alex said we were not leaving here without the Gold Ball.”

Karma. Destiny. Call it what you will, the LC Tigers (11-2) are taking the state championship trophy home with them back to Spokane.

2A

Prosser 42, Burlington-Edison 7: Steve Natho set a Washington 2A state championship game record with three rushing touchdowns, and Prosser teammate Kirby Moore set a state single-season record with his 29th touchdown catch as the Mustangs rolled to the title with a rout of Burlington-Edison (12-2).

The crown was the first for Prosser at the 2A level and its fourth overall. The Mustangs, who finished the season 14-0, won Class 3A championships in 1992, 1993 and 1999.

1A

Royal 28, Connell 16: Austin Allred ran for two touchdowns and passed for another, leading Royal to the 1A championship with a victory against Connell (13-1).

That gave the Knights (14-1) their fifth crown in seven title-game appearances.

2B

DeSales 30, Toutle Lake 0: Kevin Baffney threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another as DeSales beat Toutle Lake (10-3) in the 2B championship game.

DeSales (12-0) won its fifth state championship overall and first since 1999. The Irish won three straight titles from 1997-99.