Repeat! Anacortes denies No. 1 Tumwater in 2A championship rematch, 20-10
The golden football is going back to Anacortes.
The Seahawks have successfully stopped the freight train: WR Rylin Lang posted 107 receiving yards and two touchdowns, RB Brock Beaner erupted for a 66-yard score in the third, and No. 2 Anacortes knocked off No. 1 Tumwater, 20-10, in Saturday’s 2A state football championship at Husky Stadium.
“I told them, just keep (trophy’s) the spot warm, we’ll be right back,” Anacortes head coach Justin Portz laughed. “I’m glad I could hold that true.”
After a rematch of last year’s 2A championship on the very same field, Anacortes can celebrate a repeat. It wasn’t a shootout reminiscent of the Seahawks’ 60-30 win in 2023, but it featured the same standouts on a defense that held the T-Birds mostly at bay – again.
All season, last year’s loss fueled Tumwater, which rolled to a 13-0 record and bulldozed opponents en route to Saturday’s title game. And Anacortes heard all of the noise.
“We were doubted all week, saying we were 28-point underdogs,” Lang told The News Tribune. “We took that personal. Every day this week, we worked our butt off, and we’re back-to-back. Nothing greater than this. We do it for our community, Anacortes.”
Tumwater’s Wing-T offense churned 200 rushing yards on 66 total carries and outgained Anacortes for the game, 260-207. The difference: Tumwater went just 2-for-4 on redzone opportunities with a touchdown and field goal.
“Our defense played well enough to win,” Tumwater head coach Willie Garrow said, “and we just didn’t make the plays we needed inside the red zone when we had a chance.”
It wasn’t until the second quarter that Anacortes struck first. Lang raced down the sideline left wide open, a broken-coverage play that turned into a 33-yard touchdown catch from QB Ryan Harrington.
Tumwater countered in the final minutes of the first half and cashed in RB Cash Short’s 3-yard touchdown run on 4th and goal. On another outside run, Short veered right and extended the football over the goal line with two hands for a critical touchdown with inches to spare.
The halftime score in last year’s 2A championship? 34-6, Anacortes.
This year? Tied at seven.
“Any time you play a good Wing-T team, and (Tumwater’s) the best there is… They’re going to figure out a way to exploit the soft spots,” Portz said. “We made an adjustment at halftime, and we started stopping the outside (and) inside runs. We were OK giving up a little passing, and in the end, we just knew we could get just enough stops.
“Tumwater’s an amazing program. They’re tough. But these guys are tougher, and they proved it tonight.”
The No. 1 T-Birds grabbed their first lead in the third quarter when kicker Dylan Stevens drilled a 28-yard field goal to finally place Tumwater in the driver’s seat, 10-7.
That ride was short-lived.
Three plays later: Anacortes RB Brock Beaner took a counter run to the left, bounced off initial contact, and erupted for a 66-yard touchdown with front-row Seahawks fans awaiting his arrival in the end zone. Lang added a 61-yard reception and six-yard score in the fourth, good for a two-possession lead in the fourth.
“They got us on a couple,” Garrow said. “That’s going to happen when you have extremely talented skill-position players like (Anacortes) does.
“I’m not sad to see them graduate.”
Tumwater’s Short handled 24 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown, adding one catch for a yard. T-Birds DL Malijah Tucker, a Washington State commit, logged a team-high six tackles.
Anacortes’ Brock Beaner carried seven times for 72 yards and his 66-yard touchdown run. Lang secured four catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns, and SS Brady Beaner tackled a game-high 18. The Beaner brothers – both seniors and Montana signees – combined for 33 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss.
“Me and the twins… we’ve been playing since (we were) five years old, and we’ve always been winning,” Lang said. “We weren’t going to lose our last game together.”
Brock smiled. “I don’t know why (Tumwater was) so confident, I’ll tell you that.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2024 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Repeat! Anacortes denies No. 1 Tumwater in 2A championship rematch, 20-10."
