4A Football | 1st title for Oak Harbor
TACOMA — Oak Harbor running back Chris Valencia says he's 5-foot-6, 185 pounds, "5-7 on a good day."
Count Saturday as one of his best.
With all the hype focusing on Oak Harbor quarterback Marshall Lobbestael coming into Saturday's Class 4A state championship game against Bothell, it was easy to forget about Valencia, a hard-hitting linebacker and 1,000-yard rusher who scored 15 touchdowns this season.
The mighty mite brought all his talents to the Tacoma Dome, blowing up plays with big hits on defense, rushing for key first downs and scoring the winning 21-yard TD in the fourth quarter to lead ninth-ranked Oak Harbor to a 21-14 win over Bothell.
The win, the school's first football state title, gives Oak Harbor coach Dave Ward 100 for his career at the Whidbey Island school. Valencia finished with 18 carries for 107 yards rushing and the touchdown.
"He's got to be the toughest kid his size that I've ever coached," Ward said of Valencia, a junior who started at cornerback as a freshman. "He's got more heart than most people in the world. That kid wanted it, and he wanted the ball when we needed it, and he got every yard he could out of it."
Valencia's winning touchdown, when he squirted through the line of scrimmage behind left tackle Will Hunter and left guard Matt Johnston and cut back right, racing untouched, came three plays after a huge Bothell special-teams miscue.
Bothell's Nate Proulx bobbled a punt and Lobbestael recovered at the Cougars 28-yard line.
"For whatever reason, we didn't have our best game tonight," said Bothell coach Tom Bainter. "To get to the pinnacle like we did, I think the expectations are that you're not going to be crying on the bus ride home. It's unfortunate that the thing they'll remember the most about this season is this loss."
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 his 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 several other times. For the game, he was sacked four times, twice by Luke Jones.
For most of the night, Bothell's offense also struggled to execute against Oak Harbor's surprise 3-4 base defense. The Wildcats lined up 310-pound Will Hunter directly over Bothell's 178-pound center Connor Risden.
Oak Harbor defensive coordinator Jay Turner said the move, something they hadn't tried until last week, put more pressure in the Bothell backfield and got another linebacker on the field to counter some of Bothell's speed. Oak Harbor got four sacks as a result.
The Wildcats 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 Wildcats' defense, energized, held Bothell to a three-and-out. But Oak Harbor's special teams was also anything but. Wildcats receiver Rodrick Rumble fumbled the punt and Cougar Cory Burk recovered, giving his team possession at Oak Harbor's 30-yard line.
Oak Harbor's defense seemed to hold again, forcing a fourth-and-12 at the 32-yard line. But Bothell quarterback Cody Atkinson rolled right and floated a rainbow into the right front corner of the end zone, finding receiver Marc Mulholland to tie the score.
Valencia really showed his mettle on Oak Harbor's last drive of the first half, muscling for conversions on two third-and-shorts and a fourth-and-short. At the end of the drive, Lobbestael found Tony Thulin wide open down the middle for the 19-yard score and a 14-7 halftime lead.
Lobbestael completed 10 of 20 passes for 147 yards.
No. Bothell (12-2) got a huge break to open the second half when Oak Harbor (13-1) misplayed the kickoff. The ball fell around the 25-yard line and bounced untouched until Bothell's Cory Burk pounced on it at the 23-yard line.
Bothell hammered it closer with runs and Kirchner pounded it in from 1 yard to tie the score at 14. He finished with 100 yards on 26 carries.
The Cougars had a chance to tie, driving deep into Oak Harbor territory late in the game with the aid of a controversial 35-yard catch by Mulholland at the right sideline. But Oak Harbor's Brendon Kays intercepted Atkinson and the Wildcats ran out the clock.
"I didn't want to believe this could really happen," Ward said. "Down the stretch, there was no doubting these kids. They had great support from their parents and the community."
Michael Ko: 206-515-5563 or mko@seattletimes.com
| Bothell | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | — | 14 |
| Oak Harbor | 0 | 14 | 0 | 7 | — | 21 |
B — Marc Mulholland 32 pass from Cody Atkinson (Connor Risden kick)
OH — Tony Thulin 19 pass from Lobbestael (Johnston kick)
B — Jon Kirchner 1 run (Risden kick)
OH — Chris Valencia 21 run (Johnston kick)
| Bothell | Oak Har. | |||
| First downs | 8 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 34-71 | 30-116 |
| Passing yards | 104 | 147 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 8-17-1 | 10-20-0 |
| Return Yards | 64 | 10 |
| Punts-Avg. | 6-34.7 | 6-30.3 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 3-2 | 2-1 |
| Penalties-Yards | 3-33 | 2-10 |
| Time of Possession | 26:07 | 21:53 |
Passing — Bothell, Cody Atkinson 8-17-1-104-1. Oak Harbor, Marshall Lobbestael 10-20-0-147.
Receiving — Bothell, Marc Mulholland 3-71, Taylor Hudson 1-16, Scott Peterson 1-6, Jon Kirchner 2-(minus-5). Oak Harbor, Rodrick Rumble 1-(minus-3), Brendan Kays 1-23, Jeff Lamont 4-82, Chris Valencia 1-4, Jake Rouser 1-30, Tony Thulin 2-30.
| Wildcats' run at state | |
| Oak Harbor won four straight state playoff games and its first state football title this year after going 1-4 in earlier state appearances: | |
| Year | Result |
| 1982 | S. Kitsap 44, Oak Harbor 14 |
| 2002 | Mountain View 49, Oak Harbor 0 |
| 2003 | Ballard 21, Oak Harbor 10 |
| 2005 | Oak Harbor 28, Gig Harbor 14 |
| 2005 | Skyline 49, Oak Harbor 21 |
| 2006 | Oak Harbor 43, Mariner 42 (2OT) |
| 2006 | Oak Harbor 26, Skyview 22 |
| 2006 | Oak Harbor 14, Gonzaga Prep 10 |
| 2006 | Oak Harbor 21, Bothell 14 |
Close contests
Friday and Saturday's state championship football games
were all tight affairs.
7.8 points
Average margin of victory
in the six games.