Prep football: Napavine dishes out sweet revenge, blanks Toledo in crossover

Nov. 7—BOX SCORE At Tiger Stadium TIGERS 28, RIVERHAWKS 0 Napavine14 7 7 0 — 28 Toledo 0 0 0 0 — 0 Scoring Summary NAP (Q1) — Beckett Landram 25 pass to Travis Kirkpatrick (Ikeer Gonzalez kick), 7:22 NAP (Q1) — Landram 9 run (Gonzalez kick), 0:09 NAP (Q2) — Landram 4 run (Gonzalez kick), 1:34 NAP (Q3) — Landram 5 run (Gonzalez kick), 7:54 Team StatsNAP TOL First Downs 14, 11 Rushing Yards 123, 73 Passing Yards 98, 154 Total Yards 221, 227 Comp-Att-Int 6-11-1, 10-25-2 Fumbles/Lost 1/1, 2/0 Individual Stats Rushing: NAP — Landram 14/56/3 TD, Dean Hamilton 6/39, Pono Moniz-Taitague 5/17; TOL — Joaquin Acosta 16/39, Brody Lawrence 2/20 Passing: NAP — Landram 6-11-98-1-1; TOL — 10-25-154-0-2 Receiving: NAP — Tommy Deebach 2/26, Kirkpatrick 1/25/TD, Carter Edmonds 2/22, Talon Tabor 1/13; TOL — Brady Weeks 3/55, Rhyder Buswell 2/52, Austin Reed 2/14 Very few chances come forth in a way they did for the Napavine High School football team on Friday night. It was 349 days ago when the Tigers were blown out in the Class 2B state quarterfinals to Toledo, but it was after the final whistle where things cranked up a notch in the handshake line. A sour taste was left in their mouth from that day on. The same two programs, rich in history, tangled on the Tiger Stadium turf in a win-and-in District 4 crossover and Napavine had the chance for payback. "It may have come up," Tigers head coach Josh Fay said of the game last year. "These guys wanted to have an opportunity to right something they didn't like. Those opportunities are unusual in sports." Revenge = served. Fueled by four touchdowns from senior quarterback Beckett Landram and a stout night from the defensive line, Napavine shut out Toledo 28-0 to return to the state tournament. Since Fay took over as the leader of the program two decades ago, it hasn't missed a state tourney. The Tigers will find out their opponent in the 12-team field on Sunday. "I loved how people got off the ball, pushed their guys around and got their business done," junior lineman Wyatt Colbert said. "We all trusted each other, and practiced hard all week. Definitely a turning point." There was a renewed energy from the Tigers (7-3) sideline. Fay didn't shy away from screaming, clapping and hollering after a turnover on downs or a run through the 'A' gap from Landram or Dean Hamilton. It trickled down to the players; the evidence was mounting. This game was personal. "We have wanted this since last year," Colbert said. "Really wanted to beat them." The tone was set on the opening drive, capped by a 25-yard pass from Landram to Travis Kirkpatrick with 7 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first quarter. After a Riverhawks punt and a defensive pass interference on fourth down, Landram found the end zone again on a 9-yard scamper. One of the main stories of Napavine's season has been slow starts. Friday night was the second time it's entered the second period with double digit points. "It was still an old truck, but it warmed up for us and got us where we needed to go today," Fay said. "Certainly better just because of the situation and what's on the line. To shut those guys out... I like how they responded tonight." On defense, it was the front-four that went through some adjustments this week. Brody Mitchell, and even Landram were on the EDGE to complement Pono Moniz-Taitague and Sawyer Dewitt. The interior of Colbert, Kyler Kaywood and Matthew Watson wrecked havoc to boot. The Tigers got pressure with four and made life difficult for Toledo's ground game, finishing with only 73 yards. "They did a really nice job, I thought we were solid," Fay said. Even up four scores late in the fourth, Toledo marched down the field and attempted to get on the scoreboard. Colbert had other plans. He broke through the line of scrimmage and took the ball away from Joaquin Acosta and rumbled his way 50 yards as the final dagger. He stated it's "probably" the fastest he's ever ran in his life. "I can't make words for that, I got to the 30 and I saw the end zone and was hoping I could make it," Colbert said. "You get into big games and guys have to make big plays," Fay added. "He'll never forget that." Toledo (7-3) was doomed by injuries prior to kickoff and had more during the game. In the end, the version head coach Mike Christensen thought he'd see this year never came to fruition. "It is part of football," he said. "I really wish we could have gotten a couple possessions with our guys against Onalaska to see what we could be. This loss isn't about the effort, we just couldn't overcome the stuff that was happening to us." Acosta completed just 10 passes on 25 attempts and ran for a team-best 39 yards. The one drive early that threatened ended in a pick by Napavine's Carter Edmonds. The main bug-a-boo were penalties, eight of them for 60 yards including three DPI's and the rest pre-snap flags. "They've got good athletes and our DB's got lost in space; I liked the coverage, I didn't like how we played the ball," Christensen said. "The procedure penalties a lot of those were finding a guy on the sideline that had a beating heart and a knee that worked." The Riverhawks say goodbye to nine seniors: Nico Acosta, Austin Reed, Wyatt Barnes, Rhyder Buswell, Blake Kurtz, James Veigel, Masson Ruiz, Aidan Deskins and Matthew Martin. It's a group that was a vital part of a state title game run a year ago and were in position to win a league title until the amount of available bodies dwindled. "Each group is connected to other groups," Christensen said. "We got down and we didn't fight. We've got a tight-knit group and I'm proud of that." Fay believes his group is no worse than the sixth seed and could sneak into the five spot. Regardless of who Napavine plays, a corner may have been turned in a good way. "Just keep pushing forward," Colbert said.