4A Football | LC just wings it

TACOMA — Amid the chaos of the celebration on the field, Lewis and Clark coach Tom Yearout grabbed his running back, Alex Shaw, and didn't let go.

And for one long minute, crying in football wasn't only allowed. It was encouraged.

"That a boy," Yearout told Shaw between their sobs of joy, then let him go free so that two teammates could jump on Shaw's back as he ran over to the trophy celebration.

It only figured, as Shaw carried the Tigers throughout the playoffs to that trophy, which Lewis and Clark took home after a 21-14 victory against Bothell in the Class 4A championship game at the Tacoma Dome Saturday night. It was the first state football championship in the Spokane school's history.

This time, the big, bruising back ran for 176 yards on 37 carries, a 4A championship-game record for carries.

But as Bothell coach Tom Bainter noted, "it wasn't the run that lost the game for us. We shut that down when we needed to do. We gave up a couple of big passes on that last drive."

A pair of long passes fueled the Tigers' comeback, none more important than the 51-yard, go-ahead touchdown with only 1 minute, 4 seconds left.

Quarterback Taylor Eglet broke off one leg tackle as he rolled out, and set his mind on scrambling down the left sideline. In the meantime, Shaw leveled a blitzing Bothell defender. When Eglet looked up, receiver Jordan Hanson was wide open deep down the field.

"All game, he's been telling me I was going to find one that matters," Eglet said.

From there, Hanson said, "All I had to do was catch the ball and run."

When Lewis and Clark's Levi Taylor intercepted Bothell quarterback Johnny Hekker on the next drive, it finalized the first state championship by a team from the Greater Spokane League since 1997.

Five champions from the six classifications this year came from east of the Cascades, including all four winners Saturday in front of a combined crowd 12,708.

For the second consecutive year, Bothell was left just short of a state championship. The top-ranked Cougars (13-1), who haven't won a state championship, lost in the final to Oak Harbor last season by the same score.

"21-14 got us again," Bainter said.

The Tigers (11-2) had to come over to Western Washington three consecutive weeks to win the championship, beating Inglemoor, Edmonds-Woodway and Bothell in the final three rounds. The drive over became so routine that Yearout said, "Today seemed normal. A five-hour bus ride becomes normal."

As Yearout said, Shaw put the Tigers on his broad shoulders. In the Tigers' final four games, he rushed for 710 yards, 177.5 per game.

"When you give a guy 30 carries in five straight games," Yearout said, "he better be special."

The Cougars took a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. Junior speedster Patrick Ottorbech caught a short pass from Hekker, bounced off one tackler and then cut between two more defenders. Then he cruised into the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown reception.

It appeared to be the opening the Cougars had been waiting for. But Shaw led the Tigers right back.

Shaw ran for 43 yards on the next drive, but no play might have been more important than the Tigers' conversion on third-and-15 from the their 21-yard line. With the Cougars looking to perhaps put the game away with a stop, Eglet threw a 34-yard pass to Alex Gauper to keep the drive alive.

"I just got out of the pocket, and Alex made a great catch," Eglet said.

Then Shaw finished it with a 9-yard run to the right, bulldozing through tacklers and diving above the pylon to tie it at 14.

Bothell moved the ball to the Lewis and Clark 30 on the next drive, but defensive tackle Steve Johnson dropped back in coverage and intercepted Hekker.

"I didn't do my job on a couple plays," Hekker said.

On the first drive, Hekker led the Cougars down the field on a 71-yard drive that ended in a 1-yard Ottorbech touchdown run. But the Cougars never again found that offensive rhythm, and the Tigers were left with just enough time to leave the Tacoma Dome with a title.

"We were the only ones who thought we could win that game," Eglet said. "We all believed."

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com

LC — Alex Gauper 7 pass from Taylor Eglet (Gauper kick)

B — Ottorbech 53 from Hekker (Hekker kick)

LC — Alex Shaw 9 run (Gauper kick)

LC — Jordan Hanson 51 pass from Eglet (Gauper kick)

Rushing — Lewis and Clark, Alex Shaw 37-176, Taylor Eglet 9-7. Bothell, Jonathan Kirschner 7-12, Patrick Ottorbech 8-24, Jake Munro 5-16.

Passing — Lewis and Clark, Eglet 8-14-139-2. Bothell, Hekker 14-24-196-1, Ottorbech 0-1-0-0.

Receiving — Lewis and Clark, Vaughn Kapiko 1-1, Jordan Hanson 2-67, Alex Gauper 2-41, D.J. McNeil 1-14, Shaw 2-16. Bothell, Cory Burk 4-38, Ben Moschel 6-86, Kurt Stottlemyer 1-9, Craig Monson 2-10, Ottorbech 1-53.