O’Dea stuns No. 1 Bellevue in 3A championship game, Kohler ties historic milestone
It felt like something was potentially brewing at halftime of the Class 3A state championship game at Husky Stadium on Friday night. O’Dea, leading 14-7 at the break against top-seeded Bellevue, was testing the fortitude of the door standing between it and the state championship trophy.
Then the Irish ripped the door off its hinges and smashed it down in the second half. O’Dea kept scoring, kept getting stops and stunned the defending 3A state champions, winning 38-15, a margin of victory few realistically expected.
“Our defensive coaches did a great job getting us ready,” O’Dea coach Monte Kohler said. “ We learned our lesson last year, they beat us in the semis, so we worked hard in the spring building a defense to try to do what we could do to slow them down.”
O’Dea held Bellevue to just 258 yards of offense and gave the Wolverines next to nothing on stretch runs to the edges. Bellevue converted just two of its 11 third down attempts.
And junior running back Uriah Stringfield put on a show. On the first drive of the second half, he ripped off a 63-yard run, untouched on his way to the end zone, putting the Irish up by two scores. Then after O’Dea turned Bellevue away on fourth down, Stringfield found the end zone a few plays later again, taking a screen pass and cutting it all the way across the field for a 24-yard score.
“I pictured it in my mind all night last night, today, but I never really thought of it that big,” Stringfield said. “I never really thought I’d come out here and do this kind of thing in a state championship game against obviously a bunch of really good players on that team.”
Stringfield rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries and added a pair of catches for 53 yards and another touchdown. Stringfield, who has a background mostly in baseball, wasn’t on top of the depth chart when the season began. But an injury to O’Dea’s starting running back thrust him into the spotlight and he never looked back.
“We actually had him penciled in on defense,” Kohler said. “He moved over and just got better and better. He understands our offense. He’s good.”
Ryken Moon, the son of former NFL quarterback Warren Moon, was the most productive Bellevue player, tallying two receptions for 90 yards and adding 45 yards on the ground.
The loss was Bellevue’s first since September 8, 2023. Before Friday night, the Wolverines had won 23 straight. That streak included a 21-17 win over O’Dea in last year’s state tournament semifinal round. This year, though — revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.
MONTE KOHLER HITS WINS MILESTONE
The win tied longtime O’Dea coach Monte Kohler with legendary Tumwater coach Sid Otton for the most wins in state history (394).
Kohler, in his style, downplayed the achievement and threw in a little self-deprecating humor for good measure.
“It means nothing,” he said after the game. “It’s about (the players). I appreciate that and all that, but it’s their effort, their will. All I’ve gotta do is just stay out of the way and let them play. That’s the bottom line.
“It’s about the effort of my other coaches. They do all the work. I just kind of sit around at my desk and just watch video and stuff.”
Stringfield said he and his teammates were thrilled to win it for Kohler. They chanted “394! 394!” while hoisting the championship trophy at midfield.
“It means a lot,” Stringfield said. “Coach Kohler does everything for us. He loves us as his own and when I first came here, he took me in as his own. So I thank coach Kohler a lot.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 10:23 PM with the headline "O’Dea stuns No. 1 Bellevue in 3A championship game, Kohler ties historic milestone."
