12/13/2024

The Eli Sports Network crew has compiled our All-State Championship Football team based only on last week’s Championship games. Players from all 12 teams are eligible. Our picks are not scientific at all and is mostly from our pure observation. Stats were also used but some of the stats have some problems with the wrong players due to multiple same numbers on some teams and wrong numbers added or provided by the teams. The 2 man stat crew did an amazing job but sometimes they were not given the correct information to start with and it’s difficult to go back and fix some of the numbers.

This team is not to leave someone out who truly belonged as some of these like with the offensive line is difficult to judge. This is a group of five of us relaying our experience in watching all 6 games. It is meant to celebrate great achievement and not to deny or denigrate any individual.

That being said it is highly unlikely that we are not leaving off worthy players and for that we apologize up front. This list is strictly from our narrow scope of watching and remembering what stood out to us. We believe those we have chosen have earned it regardless with the admission we likely have missed some as well.

We have selected 1 MVP, 1 Coach and a 1st and 2nd team of 11 offensive and 11 defensive players, kicker, punter and returner. On both offense and defense we have 1 position we call flex that could be any player we deemed to have earned a spot but maybe didn’t quite fit a single definition. Additionally, we only selected a player for one slot, there are none in multiple positions.

We also added our Players of the Classification plus some other awards we added again all from simply being there for all 6 games and what drew our attention.

Let’s get to our All-State Championship Team and other awards!

Coach of the Tournament

Monte Kohler-O’Dea

There were so many ways to go but we had to pick 1. Keith Ross pulling off a spectacular 4A win, Wiley Allred getting win #300 while the Royal Knights won their 5th straight State Championship, 2B Erick Judd winning his 4th and 2nd in a row Title, 1B Darin Reppe’s 1st Title win for Wilbur-Creston-Keller and another huge win for the Anacortes Seahawks and Justin Portz.

In any other year any of these accomplishments could have taken the coaching honor but the O’Dea story is really big considering the results. This was the 5th Title for Kohler as he finished his 40th season as head coach at O’Dea. Kohler also recorded win #394 tying Tumwater legend Sid Otton for the most wins in State history by any Football coach, high school, college or pro. Also, the fact they had to go 12-0 to have the chance to do it on the Championship game and then go 13-0 to tie the record was just too big to ignore.

Monte Kohler’s accomplishment is one that will be hard to top and we look forward to seeing him and the Irish break the record likely in game 1 of the 2025 season.

MVP

Carter Kuchenbuch-Okanogan

Another tightly contested race but Carter Kuchenbuch edged out everybody just because he did everything. Kuchenbuch as QB of the Bulldogs ran for 157 yards and scored 4 touchdowns, threw for 142 and 3 touchdowns, ran in 4 2-point conversions and threw another one. The Bulldogs scored 52 points and with 7 touchdowns and 5 PAT’s that’s 52 points. So Kuchenbuch had a direct hand in every single point scored for Okanogan.

Kuchenbuch also picked off a pass on defense and returned it for a score but it was called back on a penalty after he intercepted so the pick counted. Other’s in the discusion were Lance Allred, Steele Isaacs, Rylin Lang, Preston Michel and Uriah Stringfield.

1st Team Offense

Quarterback
Lance Allred-Royal
Running Back
Uriah Stringfield-O’Dea
Steele Isaacs-Sumner
Receiver
Rylin Lang-Anacortes
Chase McGee-Camas
Flex
Preston Michel-Wilbur/Creston/Keller
Tight End
Nikko Speer-Camas
Offensive Line
Jovanni Torres-Okanogan
Elijah Thomas-Sumner
Eliezer Vivar-Royal
Treven Houston-Wilbur/Creston/Keller
Griffin Matzen-O’Dea

1st Team Defense

Defensive Line
Elias Quintino-Anacortes
Sioeli Siale-O’Dea
Beau Harlan-Camas
Linebacker
King Allah-O’Dea
Steele Rico-Okanogan
Brock Beaner-Anacortes
Flex
Ben Jenks-Royal
Defensive Back
Taylor Rebar-Sumner
Brady Beaner-Anacortes
Rassan Thomas-O’Dea
Jackson Larsen-Royal

1st Team Special Teams

Punter
Thomas Clute-Seton Catholic
Kicker
Austin Ferencz-Sumner
Returner
Ryker Ruelas-Seton Catholic

2nd Team Offense

Quarterback
Nate Donavan-Sumner
Running Back
Charlie Branning-Liberty Christian
Cash Short-Tumwater
Receiver
Kainoa Grounds-Sumner
Taige Mendenhall-Okanogan
Flex
Ryekn Moon-Bellevue
Tight End
Carter Cocke`-Sumner
Offensive Line
Will Wascher-Bellevue
Luke Richardson-Sumner
Tritan Trombley-Royal
Peyton Rivratsky-Liberty Christian
Erick Pedrizco-Anacortes

2nd Team Defense

Defensive Line
Luke Webb-Camas
Will Maxwell-Sumner
Malijah Tucker-Tumwater
Linebacker
James Mitzner-Okanogan
Garrett Nebels-Seton Catholic
Dre Quintino-Anacortes
Flex
Levi Idler-Liberty Christian
Defensive Back
Kallen Maioho-Wibur/Creston/Keller
Jared Forner-Camas
Tanner Grooms-Okanogan
Mason Thayer-Sumner

2nd Team Special Teams

Punter
Santos Hernandez/Ruiz-Sumner
Kicker
Owen Livingston-O’Dea
Returner
Colin Shields-Napavine

Players of each Classification

1B Preston Michel -Wilbur/Creston/Keller
Preston rushed for 210 yards on 35 carries and played defense recording 4 tackles and 2 pass break-ups. Our clear choice.

2B Carter Kuchenbuch-Okanogan
He was our MVP of the whole weekend we outlined what he did above and simply no one was close.

1A Ben Jenks-Royal
Yes, Lance Allred could easily be named but we went with Ben Jenks who caught a pair of passes on offense, returned a kick-off return but dominated especially in the 2nd half finishing the game with 12 tackles. Jenks applied pressure while blitzing and in coverage. We think a really under the radar performance but Jenks was huge especially in the 2nd half.

2A Brock Beaner-Anacortes
Another performance we can’t get around as Brock led the team in rushing with 7 of the 17 rushing attempts for 65 yards, caught a pass, did the punting, had 15 tackles and a pass break-up. Not sure what else he could haved done, easy call.

3A King Allah-O’Dea
Uriah Stringfield ws amazing for the Irish and racked up some big numbers on offense. But our feeling is it was the defense that won this game. They held the methodical and controlling offense of Bellevue to just 2 touchdowns including one with less than 5 min to play when the game had been decided. And King led this smothering attack with 14 tackles, 6 solo, a sack, another play for negative yards and 2 forced fumbles. Hard to notice all the damage done by the O’Dea defense when it’s happening but #57 was the leader.

4A The Sumner Spartans and Chae McGee-Camas
Ok, we’re copping out here with a tie but this truly was a team effort for Sumner. Steele Isaacs was huge on offense but an injury forced him out on the game winning drive, Nate Donavan had a big game at QB, multiple defenders but really there was not a single defender that just soared above all the others then the special teams were huge. For Camas it was relatively easy, Chase McGee was a beast with 9 catches for 144 yards, he ran the ball and played defense with a pair of pass break-ups. So ya, we’re going with both in one of the best Football Championship games ever played.

Plays of the Weekend

#1 The Fake Punt
Sumner’s fake punt in the 4th quarter with about 5 minutes to play was a big gamble for coach Keith Ross. It was 4th and 4 on their own 37 with the game tied at 24. And the one running the ball was not a running back but the regular holder for field goals and PATs in Aaron Black. Coach Ross admitted he tried to call off the play believing Camas was set up to stop it but no one heard him and they got 6 yards and a critical 1st down which led to the game winning field goal with no time left on the clock.

#2 The Pitch
In the 1B game W-C-K scored with 10 seconds to play in the half but that left time for Liberty Christian to do something and the Pagtriots did just that. The kick went to Trent Ralston who ran it back about 10 yards when he was about to be tackled he spotted Tayton Cruger out to his left and pitched the ball to him who then cruised 59 yards for touchdown.

#3 The Momentum Killer
The favored Tumwater T-Birds had just taken the lead over Anacortes with a 28 yard field goal with 7:59 to play in the 3rd quarter and it felt like maybe the momentum was shifting to the favored 1 seed. However, the underdog 2nd seed Anacortes was having none of that and on just the 2nd play of the next drive Brock Beaner took the handoff and jetted 59 yards to score and quickly re-take the lead that they would never give up snuffing the momentum shift in less than a minute of playing time.

#4 The Run
O’Dea was trying to win a massive game for the program and their coach Monte Kohler. The Irish had scored late in the 1st half to take a 14-7 lead over defending Champs Bellevue. O’Dea received the 2nd half kick-off and on the 5th play from scrimmage, Uroiah Stringfield busted open a huge 63 yard TD run to push their lead to 21-7 and they were never really challenged again.

#5 Just in time
The Okanogan Bulldogs would go on for an easy 52-21 win over Napavine but it was only 8-7 with just 8 seconds left to play in the half and on the Napavine 39. Carter Kuchenbuch dropped back for one last gasp trying to connect just before the break and he found Taige Mendenhall in the endzone for the touchdown. It was a huge momentum swing just prior to going into the halftime break.

#6 The Catch
Trailing by 7 and not wanting to fall behind further the Camas Papermakers drove the ball down to the 9 yard line. Papermakers QB Jake Davidson tossed a high pass to his tightend Nikko Speer who reached up with 1 hand and grabbed the ball while blanketed with a defender and pulled it in for the touchdown.

#7 The Return
Seton Catholic was trying to slay the dragon facing Royal and fell behind 21-7 in the 1st half. After going down by 14 they knew they had to answer and in a hurry and Ryker Rueless did just that cacthing the kick-off on his own 11 and then zooming the 89 yards for the quick score and the Cougars were right back in the game and in fact tied it just prior to the half to go to the break all even at 21-21. It was a huge play at the time in the game.

Officiating Crew of the Weekend
It was one of the best State Football Championships of all time, has to be in the top 5 and that was the 4A battle between Sumner and Camas. And one of the reasons this game was so good is the officials “officiated” the game and did not look to find penalties to call just to call penalties. There were a total of 6 flags thrown with 57 total penalty yards.

The game was physical and emotional but at no time did this crew ever lose control and never did it feel like they were going to step in and dominate the game. They allowed both sides to play hard and the best compliment you can give an officiating crew is that we really didn’t notice them.

We do want to thank all the crews it is a tough job and they are all working with other officials they don’t work with on a regular basis. Some had some problems, some had tough games with other issues that will happen from time to time but overall we give the officials a lot of credit for letting the games be played and decided by the players.

Halftime Show of the Weekend

We have to give a special nod to the spectacular halftime show during the 4A game with both schools having large marching bands that both did an amazing job. Camas went first and their huge band took the field followed by Sumner’s legendary band. Both are very traditional and so well executed and most of all both haved tremendous musicians who know how to play their instruments and both sounded as good as it gets. Hats off the Camas and Sumner Marching Bands!

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