O’Dea stops Camas 21-13 in state semifinals

TACOMA — The first trip to the state semifinals will have to be good enough for the Camas football team this season.

O’Dea of Seattle got the best of Camas in the Class 3A state semifinals Friday night, topping the Papermakers 21-13 at the Tacoma Dome.

Camas’ season comes to an end, but only after reaching Week 13 for the first time in the program’s history.

“They have paved a road for the future Papermakers,” Camas coach Jon Eagle said. “They took us one game farther than we’ve ever been before. Now, the goal will be to surpass this.”

Eagle said more than 40 freshmen started in 2008. Of those, 14 played all four seasons.

“I’m proud of what they did for our program,” Eagle said. “We rode those 14 here.”

Unfortunately for the Papermakers, the ride is over.

Jomari Brooks broke free for a 30-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter to give the Irish an eight-point lead.

“I knew my teammates were depending on me,” Brooks said. “No one was going to take me down. I just had to get us to the next round.”

The Papermakers went three-and-out on their next possession and never saw the ball again.

O’Dea chewed up the final 5 minutes, 47 seconds by converting on two fourth-down plays.

“We’ve been talking about this since Day 1,” Brooks said. “We were supposed to make it to the finals last year. This is for everybody in the past history.”

The Papermakers, who trailed 14-3 at the half, got a 55-yard touchdown pass from Tony Gennaro to Jonathan Warner on the third play of the second half. The Camas defense stuffed O’Dea on its next two possessions, setting up another Camas scoring chance.

The Papermakers went backward after getting to the O’Dea 4-yard line, though. That led to a 38-yard field goal from Roldan Alcobendas with 2:14 left in the third quarter.

The Camas offense would only have the ball 71 more seconds the rest of the game.

“I thought they were able to sustain and control the line of scrimmage in the second half,” Eagle said of the Irish.

“They were just the more aggressive team,” Warner said. “Their aggressiveness just took over.”

Camas opened the game with the better numbers. The Papermakers outgained O’Dea 123 to 26 in the first quarter.

Zack Marshall, the 3A Greater St. Helens League’s offensive player of the year, had 61 yards from scrimmage in that quarter. But he left with a dislocated thumb in the final minute of the period.

The Papermakers did not want to make any excuses, though.

“That’s the game. Durability is part of the game,” Eagle said.

Camas took the initial lead, as well, on a 22-yard field goal from Alcobendas early in the second period.

O’Dea came right back with a fluke of a touchdown. Quarterback Pierre LeDorze acknowledged after the game that he was trying to throw to a different receiver. He overthrew his target, the ball was tipped, and it fell into the arms of Taryll Calhoun for a 64-yard touchdown and a 7-3 lead.

There was no luck of the Irish on O’Dea’s next touchdown. Just power football.

The Irish went 83 yards on 13 plays, picking up five first downs along the way against a defense not accustomed to giving up sustained drives. LeDorze capped it with a 1-yard plunge for a 14-3 lead at the half.

O’Dea would have two more of those drives in the second half, the one to go up by eight and the one to end Camas’ season.

“We came close. We just made too many mistakes,” said Gennaro, who completed 14 of 37 passes for 200 yards with two interceptions. “I made plenty of mistakes, and they capitalized. They didn’t make many mistakes. It’s a great opportunity for the younger guys to learn that mistakes are going to hurt you in this game.”

Camas got deep into O’Dea territory three times in the first half without scoring.

“You gotta cash in,” Eagle said.

While the pain of losing was still fresh, the Papermakers did take time to celebrate their accomplishments in the 2011 season. Camas won its second consecutive 3A GSHL title and won two state playoff games this year, trumping last year’s run to the quarterfinals.

“We just wanted to prove a lot of people wrong,” Warner said, noting that many thought last year’s class was so strong that there was no way the next group could sustain the success. “There were a lot of doubters. We wanted to show them we could step up. We made it here to the semis.”

“I’ve never been here before,” Gennaro said, walking alone at midfield, staring up at the dome. “Crazy feeling. I wouldn’t want to be here with any other group of guys. All of them are my best friends.”

O’DEA 21, CAMAS 13

Camas 0 3 10 0—13

O’Dea 0 14 7 0—21

Second quarter

C — Roldan Alcobendas 22 FG

O — Taryll Calhoun 64 pass from Pierre LeDorze (Bart Hardwick kick)

O — LeDorze 1 run (Hardwick kick)

Third quarter

C — Jonathan Warner 55 pass from Tony Gennaro (Alcobendas kick)

C — Alcobendas 38 FG

Fourth quarter

O — Jomari Brooks 30 run (Hardwick kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Camas: Nate Beasley 9-76, Zack Marshall 6-51, Vincente Huber 3-4, Gennaro 3-(-30). O’Dea: Jayshawn Jordan 13-68, Brooks 11-68, Tatum Taylor 7-27, LeDorze 16-18, Johntye Jackson 1-3.

PASSING — Camas: Gennaro 14-37-2-200. O’Dea: LeDorze 5-9-0-113, Jordan 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — Camas: Zach Eagle 5-76, Warner 4-76, John Payne 1-30, Dylan White 1-7, Marshall 1-5, John Norcross 1-3, Beasley 1-3. O’Dea: Calhoun 2-80, Brooks 1-17, Spencer Ramquist 1-8, Kent McKinney 1-8.

Video highlights from Camas v. O’Dea, courtesy of GSHLfootball.com special to 360Preps. Full highlight videos are available at gshlfootball.com.