HS Football: Graham-Kapowsin Edges Out Win Over Bethel In Tight Contest

10/11/24

Graham-Kapowsin Eagles 26, Bethel Bison 24

(Elk Plain, WA) They call it “The Battle of 224th,” and the rivalry game was truly a battle of two teams duking it out to the very end. The Graham-Kapowsin Eagles were flying high on a three-game win streak after narrowly losing their first two games, while the Bethel Bison were feeling good themselves, coming off of a 34-27 win over Spanaway Lake last week.

In the first quarter, Bethel drove down the field and knocked home a 33-yard field goal off the boot of Christian Bernardo to go up 3-0. Graham-Kapowsin answered with the game’s first touchdown, as freshman quarterback AJ Tuivaiave found sophomore wide receiver Kase Betz in the front corner of the end zone for a nine-yard touchdown to give Graham-Kapowsin a 7-3 lead. On the next drive, Betz made his impact felt on the defensive side, coming up with an interception on a long pass down the field where he picked it off, but the Eagles were forced to punt on that drive.

In the second quarter, Bethel would quickly jump back in the lead as the Bison went on a four-play drive, and quarterback Evan Barnes threw a pass to Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, who was open in the end zone, Rainey-Sale bobbled the ball and caught it just before going out of bounds and got his feet down to get the touchdown with some flair, giving Bethel a 10-7 lead. Graham-Kapowsin responded with their longest drive of the night, a 10-play, 79-yard drive lasting five minutes, and capped off with a phenomenal throw from AJ Tuivaiave to Kase Betz in the back corner of the end zone. Tuivaiave placed it perfectly into the hands of Betz, who made a nice catch, and past the outstretched arms of the defenders to give Graham-Kapowsin a 13-10 lead.

Bethel responded by going back to their playmaker, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, once again finding him on the deep ball as Barnes flung a great pass where Rainey-Sale was open enough to jog into the end zone on a 49-yard touchdown to give Bethel the lead right back at 17-13. Graham-Kapowsin marched down the field and, with under 30 seconds left in the half, faced fourth down after Rainey-Sale got a sack, forcing fourth and long for the Eagles, and Bethel held G-K short of the line to gain to keep their 17-13 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, Graham-Kapowsin got the ball to start the second half and, after a great kick return, started their first drive at the 42-yard line, and in five plays, sophomore Blake Pearson pounded the rock and scored from seven yards out to put Graham-Kapowsin in the lead at 19-17. Graham-Kapowsin, on the ensuing drive, forced Bethel to punt for the first time in the game with a three and out, and the Eagles took advantage with Tuivaiave hitting Khris Norris for a 36-yard gain to set up Graham-Kapowsin inside the Bethel ten. Bethel’s defense forced Graham-Kapowsin to fourth and goal, where the Eagles went with a pass from Tuivaiave to Caleb Braithwaite for the five-yard touchdown and also making their lead up to nine points at 26-17.

Bethel was forced to punt on their next drive, and then both teams turned it over on downs on back-to-back drives before Graham-Kapowsin had the ball at the Bethel 23-yard line to start their drive, but once again, the Bethel defense came up with a huge stop, pushing Graham-Kapowsin out of field goal range and forcing the Eagles to punt. This would set up Bethel to go down the field, with tight end Elijah Muliufi getting a 23-yard catch and a 20-yard catch, helping set up Bethel inside Graham-Kapowsin’s 20-yard line. Bethel’s Evan Barnes delivered a perfect pass to the far side of the field for his target, Anthony Sanchez-Whighan, who made the grab for the touchdown to pull Bethel within two points as the Bison trailed 26-24 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Graham-Kapowsin would get another great kick return to set the Eagles up in Bison territory and drove down the field to the 11-yard line, where they faced fourth and two with just over two minutes left in the game. Bethel only had one timeout left, and once more, Bethel’s defense made a play this time, Ethan Schuppener made a leaping effort to swat the ball away, force a turnover on downs, and give Bethel’s offense one more chance to drive down the field. Bethel would go 14 yards on third down with Barnes finding Vashon Igitol for a first down, then Bethel drew a 15-yard penalty on a pass interference call. Bethel had second and one from the 49-yard line, but after a pair of incompletions and a false start, Bethel was staring at fourth and six. The Bison tried to go over the middle for a pass that was just out of the reach of their intended target and Graham-Kapowsin forced the much-needed turnover on downs and would run out the clock to take the victory 26-24.

Our elisportsnetwork.com Game MVP went to Kase Betz, whose fantastic season continued with two first-half touchdowns, an interception, and, as he told us in our post-game interview, was given the arduous task of stopping the number one recruit in the state for the class of 2025, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, which he did perfectly, including a big pass breakup in the second half on Rainey-Sale, who nearly made another great catch on the sideline.

Graham-Kapowsin improves to 4-2 on the season and is now 3-0 in the SPSL, and the Eagles head to Olympia next week, who currently is 5-0 on the year and 2-0 in the SPSL. Bethel drops to 3-3 on the year and is 1-2 in the SPSL and will host Yelm next week.

Link to the full game replay (Subscription Required)

Postgame Interview With Game MVP, Graham-Kapowsin’s Kase Betz