Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled White River quarterback Tristan Waterman’s last name. The article has been corrected.
Week five of the prep football season delivered a landslide victory for the Enumclaw High Hornets and a tough loss for the White River squad.
Both teams played Friday night, under mostly clear skies, on their home turf. Enumclaw did just what was expected, easily dismantling the Foss Falcons 70-0; on the Pierce County side, White River fell 22-19 to the Clover Park Timberwolves.
Enumclaw remains the top dog in the state’s Class 2A ranks, holding the No. 1 spot in both the WIAA’s Rating Percentage Index and the Associated Press poll. With the victory over Tacoma’s Foss High, EHS improved to 5-0 on the season and 4-0 in South Puget Sound League 2A competition.
The Hornets have dominated on both sides of the ball all season. The EHS defense has posted three shutouts and allowed an average of just four points per game. Coach Mark Gunderson’s unit allowed a single touchdown to Orting, the No. 5-ranked team in the state (per WIAA) and gave up 13 points in the season opener to Class 3A Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Enumclaw offense is averaging nearly 40 points per contest.
Last Friday’s SPSL 2A contest was billed as a mismatch from the start. The Falcons made the trip to Enumclaw holding an 0-4 record and had lost each of those four games by 40 points or more. The visit to the Expo Center only made the numbers worse for the Foss crew.
Enumclaw’s scoring came fast and furious as the Hornets put 42 points on the board during the opening quarter. That included TD passes from from Gunnar Trachte to Colton Paulson and Wyatt Neu; touchdown runs by Tristan Donovan, Seamus Twohey and Trachte; and an interception by Karson Holt that was returned 45 yards for another six points.
The fourth quarter saw the Hornets adding touchdown runs by Tyler Overdorf, Donovan, Twohey and Cole Chiechi.
Enumclaw’s defense intercepted four Foss passes (by Jalen Watson, Kannon Kuzaro and Twohey, plus Holt’s pick-six), recovered two fumbles and, in the end, limited the Falcons to a measly 31 yards of total offense.
White River: The Hornets made things close while falling to 1-4 for the season, all in league play. The squad’s lone nonleague contest comes this Saturday, Oct. 7, when the Fort Vancouver teams travels north from Clark County for a 4 p.m. kickoff.
It was Homecoming night in Buckley when White River and Clover Park squared off, but a festive mood was quickly dashed when starting quarterback Aaden Rathbun was injured on just the sixth play of the game. He remained in the game, though, and found Tate Bowen for a 23-yard scoring strike on the Hornets’ first possession of the contest.
White River then failed to capitalize on two opportunities, the first when an errant snap led to the Hornets taking possession deep in Timberwolf territory and the second courtesy of a Kouri Lewis interception.
Clover Park then took a 7-6 lead, intercepting a pass by reserve quarterback Tristan Waterman and returning it for a TD. Waterman quickly made amends, connecting with Bowen for an 80-yard pass-and-run that saw the junior running back break free of two would-be tacklers before racing to the end zone.
White River pushed its lead to 19-7 on another Waterman-to-Bowen TD connection, this time from 43 yards out. Bowen finished with nine receptions, good for 172 yards.
The visitors from Lakewood scored early in the fourth quarter to pull close, then added the game-winning touchdown on a 13-play drive that followed another interception of a Hornet pass.
