First football title for Oak Harbor

TACOMA — With all the hype around Oak Harbor quarterback Marshall Lobbestael coming into Saturday's Class 4A state championship game, it was easy to forget the Wildcats had a 1,000-yard rusher in the backfield as well.

Chris Valencia, a 5-foot-7, 185-pound junior, had scored 15 touchdowns this season, as well.

The mighty mite showed every ounce of his worth in the Tacoma Dome, converting several key third-down conversions in the second half, delivering big hits on defense and running for a 21-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to lead the Wildcats over Bothell 21-14 for Oak Harbor's first ever state title.

"I didn't really want to believe this could happen," said Oak Harbor coach Dave Ward, who earned the 100th victory for his career. "Down the stretch, there was no doubt in these kids."

Valencia's winning touchdown, when he squirted through the line of scrimmage and cut back right, came three plays after a huge Bothell special-teams miscue.

Bothell's Nate Proulx misplayed a punt, muffed it and Lobbestael recovered.

"He explodes really well when he gets a seam," Ward said of Valencia.

Early on, Lobbestael, a Washington State recruit who has passed for more than 2,600 yards and 34 touchdowns this year, couldn't find his rhythm.

On his first three drives, he completed three of seven passes for 16 yards.

The first was a flanker screen, the second a left-handed shovel pass just before he was about to be sacked and the third another screen pass that lost 3 yards.

Part of that was Bothell's aggressive pass rush, which sacked him twice in the first half and knocked him down to the turf several other times.

The ninth-ranked Wildcats (13-1) opened the scoring. At the Bothell 45-yard line, Lobbestael dropped back, pump-faked and looked left, finding receiver Jeff Lamont wide open at the 20-yard line after Bothell's Derek Stottlemyer, a first-team all KingCo cornerback, slipped and fell.

Lamont raced in untouched to put Oak Harbor up 7-0.

The energized Wildcats defense held No. 8 Bothell (12-2) to a three-and-out. But Oak Harbor's Rodrick Rumble fumbled the punt and Bothell's Cory Burk recovered, giving the Cougars possession at Oak Harbor's 30-yard line.

Oak Harbor's defense seemed to hold again, forcing a fourth-and-12.

But Bothell quarterback Cody Atkinson rolled right and floated a rainbow into the right front corner of the end zone, finding receiver Marc Mulholland, who hauled it in as he was falling down for a 32-yard TD catch to tie the score.

The two had connected eight times for 124 yards in Bothell's semifinals win last week over Edmonds-Woodway.

After Bothell's touchdown, Oak Harbor went back to the running game, giving Valencia the ball twice on third down. Both times, he kept the drive alive. A few plays later, he got the call again on a fourth-and-inches, and muscled his way through the pile for the first down.

On the very next play, with less than a minute before halftime, Lobbestael found wingback Tony Thulin wide open in the middle for a 19-yard touchdown pass and a 14-7 lead at halftime.

All night, the special teams were anything but.

Bothell got a huge break to open the first half, when Oak Harbor misplayed the kickoff. The kickoff fell around the 25-yard line and bounced untouched until Bothell's Cory Burk pounced on it at the 23-yard line.

Bothell drove easily, with Kirchner converting a third-and-four with a 7-yard run and eventually hammering it in from 1 yard to tie the score.

Bothell drove deep into Oak Harbor territory late in the game, with the aid of a controversial 35-yard catch by Mulholland to convert a third-and-17. But Oak Harbor's Brendon Kays made an interception and the Wildcats ran out the clock.

The all-day attendance was 15,060.

Michael Ko: 206-515-5563 or mko@seattletimes.com