Prep Football | 2A: Archbishop Murphy stops W.F. West, 14-7

TUMWATER — Alex Martinez walked in for the winning touchdown, but it was far from easy for Archbishop Murphy.

Martinez waltzed in untouched over left tackle from 3 yards with 31.9 seconds left to give second-ranked Archbishop Murphy a 14-7 victory over No. 6 W.F. West of Chehalis in the Class 2A state quarterfinals on Saturday.

The TD run was easy, but the win was not. The momentum swung wildly in the second half, with two W.F. West turnovers and wild field-position swings.

"Wow, I'm just speechless," said Martinez, whose team was stopped at the Bearcats' 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter with the score 7-7. "We haven't had a game like that since Cedarcrest," a 14-7 Wildcats win on Oct. 16. "I'm just proud of our guys, sticking together. Everything went wrong in the second half. All the penalties we had was tough. We just persevered."

The Wildcats (11-1) advanced to the semifinals for the sixth time in seven trips in school history and will play Lynden Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. Lynden beat ATM in last year's semis, 21-13.

Martinez rambled for 152 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries. He ran for 29 yards on the winning, 33-yard drive after ATM forced W.F. West to punt from its end zone.

"With all the big dogs we had up front, I knew they wouldn't stop us twice," said Martinez, a 5-foot-11, 192-pound senior. "All the misfortune on both sides, that's just how football is. I was just trying to find No. 78, Julius Tevaga, and run right behind that big dog. He's gotten it done all season for us. I knew if we kept trying and trying, we'd get it."

ATM outgained W.F. West (11-1) 341 yards to 188. All the Wildcats' offense came on the ground.

"We preached all week about how good this team [W.F. West] was," said Archbishop Murphy coach Dave Ward. "We said that we maybe had as tough a draw as anybody in the state for a quarterfinal game."

Mistakes hurt W.F. West.

Early in the third quarter, trailing 7-0, the Bearcats' Mitch Gueller broke several tackles on a big run before stumbling, then fumbling while ahead of a pack of ATM defenders. Martinez recovered at the W.F. West 11.

In the fourth quarter, with the score tied 7-7, Gueller caught a 79-yard pass from Ben Ternan after the Bearcats were backed up inside their 1-yard line. But the Wildcats' Matt Huggins picked off a Ternan pass at the ATM 2 with 10:58 remaining.

Archbishop Murphy shut down an opponent that came in averaging more than 30 points per game. In the first half, the Wildcats held the Bearcats to minus-3 yards rushing and 48 total yards.