HS Football: WF West Bearcats take control of EVCO 2A with dominant win over Tumwater

9/30/2022

WF West 28, Tumwater 7

(Tumwater, WA) A bakers dozen is the last time the WF West Bearcats beat the Tumwater T-Birds and in fact Tumwater has been league champs for 12 of those 13 years with only Black Hills interrupting that run one time. The Bearcats have been brewing on this streak and this year they put it all together with a dominating win over last year’s State runners up and on their field.

The Bearcat offense put a stamp in this game with two long drives to start the game. QB Gavin Fugate set up the first TD with a 35-yard pass to Gage Brumfield that set up a 9-yard scoring run from Tucker Land, the PAT was good and the Cats were up 7-0. Fugate and Brumfield would connect again after Chehalis forced Tumwater to punt on a 3 and out when Fugate hit Brumfield with a 10-yard TD over the middle after another long drive. The PAT was good again and just like that the Bearcats led 14-0 with all the momentum on their side.

The Bearcat defense was just as stingy limiting Tumwater’s offense to just 160 yards. Tumwater QB Alex Overbay was limited to just 4 completions for 25 yards and surrendering no points. The lone touchdown for the T-Birds would be an interception return for a touchdown by Jadin Allen in the 2nd half after already trailing 28-0.

The Bearcats offense wasn’t done in the 1st half with their 14-0 lead and in fact scored all 28 in the first 24 minutes. With a 14-0 lead Chehalis went back to work and Fugate who finished the game with more than 250 yards passing got 56 of those with a deep strike to Cameron Amoroso for their 3rd touchdown pushing their lead to 21-0.

Chehalis then stopped Tumwater’s best scoring chance of the 1st half with an interception by Cody Pennington inside their own 5 yard line. The Bearcats would quickly move down the field and they would cap the drive with a Evan Stajduhar 5 yard plunge for the score and the Bearcats would take that 28-0 lead into the locker room and the game was basically over.

WF West improves to 3-0 in EVCO 2A play and 4-1 overall while Tumwater drops to 3rd place behind 2-0 Aberdeen with a 1-1 league mark and 4-1 for the season. The Bearcats will next host the 1st of 3 straight home games against Rochester next Friday while Tumwater will look to rebound with a home game against Aberdeen.

The Thorbeckes MVP of the game was Gavin Fugate with his 15 for 24 and 255 yards and 2 touchdown effort.