Power running, stifling defense carry Lynden to championship win over top-ranked Tumwater
Lynden coach Blake VanDalen had no trouble explaining a remarkably efficient performance as his second-seeded Lions upended top-seeded Tumwater 21-7 for the Class 2A state championship Saturday night at Sparks Stadium.
“Our kids are just so selfless,” he said, savoring his first state title and Lynden’s ninth. “We don’t have any superstars or heavily recruited (Power Five Division I) athletes. We just have kids who care about each other.”
Senior all-around performer Cade Slayton, who used his power running style to score all three touchdowns on short keepers as Lynden’s backup quarterback, confirmed that there’s no question the players have faith in their coaches and themselves.
“He’s been like that all season,” said Slayton, who gained a game-high 88 yards rushing on 17 carries and did not lose a single yard. “We just trust each other and the coaches and we don’t question any decisions the coaches make.”
Last week, in his first extensive duty at quarterback, Slayton led the Lions 80 yards in the final six minutes to rally past previously unbeaten North Kitsap 15-10, scoring the winning touchdown with 38 seconds to play.
“If anyone had told me last year that all this would happen to me, I would have called them crazy,” Slayton said with a wide grin. Slayton was not in the running as the regular quarterback because a shoulder injury prevented him from throwing all season, although he could still play tight end and defensive end.
Junior quarterback Kaidan Hermanutz, who largely guided the Lions to a 12-1 record, said he wanted the state title a lot more than any touchdowns on a night he played most of the snaps.
“Coach VanDalen made all the right decisions tonight,” said Hermanutz, who produced 24 touchdowns passing and running.
The outstanding junior defensive lineman Luke Winterberg said Tumwater’s game-opening 69-yard, 13-play touchdown drive didn’t faze the Lions, even after Payton Hoyt capped the thrust with a 21-yard touchdown run.
“Actually, that drive motivated us,” said Winterberg. “We just knew we had to get better the next time.”
The Lions certainly did just that. The Thunderbirds — who gained 74 yards on their scoring drive because they had one penalty — netted only 101 yards the rest of the game.
Hermanutz and Slayton both lauded their interior linemen, none of whom are seniors, and are coached by Ed Bomber.
“It feels so good knowing those guys will be back,” Hermanutz said of juniors Josiah VanderHaak, Jesus Ortiz and Dan Gatterman and sophomores Bennett Roorda and Kuyper Assink.
“I can’t remember anything like a line as young as that,” said VanDalen, who was an assistant coach as the Lions won six of eight 2A state titles in a string that ended in 2013.
The Lions pulled off numerous key plays both offensively and defensively. Lynden had only one turnover — a fourth-quarter interception after all the scoring was done — and Lions senior Collin Anker made two interceptions and junior Kobe Baar made one.
Tumwater (10-3) still had a chance to win when Anker made his second interception with an all-out dive with 6:39 to play.
And when the T-Birds gained one more opportunity to score, Lynden linebacker Taivin VanDalen knocked down a fourth-down pass with 3:54 left. VanDalen was a fitting defensive hero, finishing with a team-high 11 tackles and coming off a school-record defensive point total in the semifinal win, including a game-high 17 tackles.
As tired as running back/blocker/linebacker Lane Heeringa must have been, he enabled the Lions to run out the clock with first down bursts of 16, 10 and 4 yards to go with four runs for 18 yards by Slayton.
Heeringa ran 16 times for 75 yards and finished the season with 1,084. Fellow junior Campbell Nolte contributed 46 yards on 10 carries.
“It feels so good, knowing our linemen will return next season,” said Heeringa.
Case Zweegman also did a lot of blocking at tight and fellow senior Hunter Holman was obviously excellent as a blocker in his first start at tight end.
Anker’s first interception and his 29-yard return enabled the Lions to take the lead with a 22-yard scoring drive early in the second quarter, capped by Slayton’s 1-yard run following his 14-yard burst. Troy Petz, who averaged 42.8 yards on five punts, kicked the conversion for a 9-7 advantage.
Lynden’s first two points came on a safety when a punt snap went out of the end zone on Tumwater’s second possession.
The Lions made it 15-7 on a 2-yard keeper by Slayton with 1:45 left in the first half. Slayton’s 26-yard run and Hermanutz’s 35-yard pass to Kaleo Jandoc made the score possible.
“Our third drive was just amazing. What a great drive,” Blake VanDalen said of Lynden’s 63-yard, 15-play push to open the third quarter. After Petz’s 23-yard kickoff return — this kicker is also a fine athlete — the Lions earned three first downs on runs of nine yards by Heeringa and eight and five yards by Hermanutz.
VanDalen showed his faith in the team when he sent in Slayton on fourth and one from Lynden’s own 43 late in the third quarter. Slayton picked up 11 yards and only an interception by Tumwater’s Ryan Orr may have halted a fourth Lynden scoring drive.
The Lions limited Tumwater quarterback Alex Overbay to 4-for-18 passing for 31 yards in a steady and often heavy rain. Hermanutz was 5-for-15 for 76 yards.
Max Moore, who had figured to alternate with junior Hermanutz before the senior suffered a serious shoulder injury in the season opener, was especially thankful to VanDalen for a chance to play.
VanDalen respects Moore so much that he played him on special teams so that he would get a chance in a state title game. Moore said he understand that since his shoulder could go out at any time, he was needed as an emergency reserve in case anything happened to Hermanutz and/or Slayton.
“It’s all been worth it,” said Moore. “Definitely worth everything to win a state title.
Seems like every one of the Lions will be saying that for a long, long time.
“This title is for all our seniors in my five years as head coach,” said VanDalen, whose Lions reached the final in 2018 and the semifinals in 2019 before the football classes of both 2021 and 2022 both endured a lot of COVID-19 frustration.
Because Lynden went 4-2 in an abbreviated late winter season, many of the current seniors will graduate having played 19 games in calendar year 2021 with a 16-3 record.
“Blake doesn’t coach for championships,” said Lynden boys’ basketball coach Brian Roper, for whom VanDalen serves as an assistant. “He coaches because he loves kids.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2021 at 11:26 PM.
