4A Football | Issaquah knocks out Bothell, 31-28

ISSAQUAH — Gavin Schumaker nervously paced the sidelines during the final two minutes, taking one imaginary kick at the turf every four or five paces. Teammates walked up to him, grabbed him by the shoulder pads and told him to not worry. If he missed, they said, it would be OK.

On the field, his team, Issaquah, was moving the ball. Its quarterback found one long pass down the sideline, and then another down the middle to convert a third down. And then the two minutes were gone, leaving just five seconds, and the moment he dreaded was there. They needed him to kick the winner.

He wasn't so sure about the kick, from 36 yards.

"It scared me," he said. "It went a little bit left."

But both officials raised their arms to signal it was good, and he fist pumped as his teammates mobbed him, because his kick had just given Issaquah a 31-28 victory in the Class 4A quarterfinals. The kick, his season long, sent the Eagles back to the Tacoma Dome, where they will play Central Kitsap, a 21-6 winner against Rogers of Puyallup.

Just eight minutes before Schumaker's kick, Bothell had finished coming back from a 21-0 second-quarter deficit. To that point, the Cougars had committed two turnovers, both of which led to Issaquah touchdowns, and they had committed two roughing the kicker penalties, both of which led to Issaquah touchdowns.

"We just dug ourselves too deep a hole," Bothell coach Tom Bainter said. "You can't give a team like that four breaks."

But Bothell did not punt the entire night, and the Cougars knew that if they stopped killing themselves, they could make this a game. Bothell running back Patrick Ottorbech swiveled and sped through the Issaquah defense, churning for 253 yards. He scored on a 1-yard score — on fourth down — that made it 21-7, and then later, he scored on a 5-yard toss to the left. That touchdown, even with a blocked extra point, tied the score at 21-21.

"He was awesome," Issaquah coach Chris Bennett said.

But so was Issaquah's running back Grant Gellatly, who ran for 186 yards and three touchdowns (giving him 499 yards and 6 TDs in the past two games). And following Ottorbech's tying score, Gellatly took off on a 33-yard score that set up a Joey Bradley touchdown pass to Brennan Miller with 4:09 left

That turned out to be too much time for Bothell, especially when Ottorbech bolted for a 45-yard run. That led to a 12-yard touchdown pass from James Korn to Michael Hartvigson with 1:44 left, tying the score at 28. But when Bothell's kickoff only went to the Issaquah 40, the Eagles had good field position and enough time.

Enough time for Bradley to find Evan Peterson for an 18-yard gain down the sideline, and a 20-yard pass to Miller on third down. Bradley, who finished with 196 passing yards, put Schumaker in position for the winning kick.

"Man, what a gutsy game," Bennett said. "What a great job by Joey tonight."