Columbia River’s 1-2 punch keys win over Woodland

Nathaniel Trevino hadn’t had many opportunities to show what he could do for his new football team so far this season.

The Columbia River senior transferred from Evergreen over the summer, and had only rushed for 42 yards in four games coming into Friday’s 2A GSHL home matchup with Woodland.

Trevino picked a fine time for a breakout performance. He ran 16 times for a game-high 102 yards and two touchdowns, and he also picked off a fourth-down pass in the end zone to lead the Chieftains to a 35-24 victory that leaves them alone atop the league standings.

Trevino had his biggest game since last October, when he ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns for the Plainsmen against Yelm.

“I was hoping for three touchdowns tonight,” Trevino said, smiling. “But I scored two touchdowns, had an interception. It was a good game.”

Indeed, he took some of the pressure off backfield mate Hunter Pearson, who’d carried the load through River’s first five games. Pearson still was the workhorse, grinding out 101 yards and a TD on 20 carries, but Trevino provided the pop that the running attack had been missing, ripping off TD runs of 46 and 14 yards in the second half.

“Me and him on the field at the same time, we’re a dual threat,” Trevino said. “If they target one of us, the other is going to go off.”

First-year coach Christian Swain said it was a concerted effort to get Trevino more involved.

“We wanted to get him going, because he’s going to be a huge weapon for us,” Swain said. “We don’t want opponents to be able to hone in on one guy. Now, it’s going to be harder for teams to do that down the stretch.”

That includes next week’s opponent, Hockinson (5-1, 3-1), the defending 2A GSHL champion who’ll host the Chieftains (4-2, 3-0) in a game that likely will decide this year’s title.

River won the 3A GSHL title three of the past four years, including the last two, so coming off last week’s 42-0 nonleague loss to Skyview, Swain said preparing for the Beavers (3-3, 2-1) wasn’t difficult.

“The kids knew this was league play now, so there definitely was a sense of urgency this week,” he said. “This was the best week of practice we’d had all year.”

It showed on the Chieftains’ opening drive. They broke out a trick play to start the game, with wide receiver Dalton Garrett taking a reverse pitch and hitting quarterback Jack Armstrong for a 35-yard gain. Four plays later, Armstrong scored on a 6-yard run.

Woodland took an 8-7 lead late in the first quarter on an 11-yard pass from Wyatt Harsh to Tyler Flanagan, but River quickly answered. A 31-yard kickoff return by Jarrett Seelbinder set the Chieftains up on a short field, and six plays later, Pearson rumbled for a 19-yard TD run.

Trevino’s first touchdown, on River’s opening drive of the second half, gave the hosts a 22-8 lead. The Beavers answered with a 12-play, 84-yard drive to cut the deficit to six on a 2-yard pass from Harsh to Logan Knight.

Woodland, though, couldn’t overcome a pair of fourth-quarter mistakes that allowed River to put the game away.

Paul Meister broke through to block a punt deep in Beavers territory, and Columbia River cashed it in with Trevino’s 14-yard TD run.

On the following possession, Harsh couldn’t corral a high snap at midfield that sailed past him. Koben Jamison recovered for the Chieftains with 5:12 left.

Jamison later scored a clinching touchdown on a 9-yard run with 1:28 left, and although Flanagan returned the ensuing kickoff 81 yards for a score, Woodland couldn’t recover an onside kick and River ran out the clock.

“One mistake can kill you, and we had a couple too many tonight,” first-year Beavers coach Mike Woodward said. “They kept pounding on us, and while we stood up to the challenge, they finally wore us down.”

Harsh finished 15-of-32 for 185 yards. Flanagan had seven catches for 106 yards.

COLUMBIA RIVER 35, WOODLAND 24

Woodland 8 0 8 8–24

Columbia River 15 0 7 13–35

First Quarter

CR–Jack Armstrong 6 run (Kent Stricker kick)

W–Tyler Flanagan 11 pass from Wyatt Harsh (T.Flanagan run)

CR–Hunter Pearson 19 run (Nathan Kunz run)

Third Quarter

CR–Nathaniel Trevino 46 run (Stricker kick)

W–Logan Knight 2 pass from Harsh (Knight pass from Harsh)

Fourth Quarter

CR–Trevino 14 run (pass failed)

CR–Koben Jamison 9 run (Stricker kick)

W–T.Flanagan 81 kickoff return (T.Flanagan pass from Harsh)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–W, T.Flanagan 13-39, Kenyon Guy 7-6, Harsh 2-(minus 10), team 2-(minus 29). CR, Trevino 16-102, Pearson 20-101, Armstrong 6-(minus 8), Jamison 1-9, team 2-(minus 4).

PASSING–W, Harsh 15-32-1-185. CR, Armstrong 2-6-0-63, Dalton Garrett 1-2-0-35.

RECEIVING–W, T.Flanagan 7-106, Sebastian Martinez 3-22, Knight 2-39, Alex Bishop 2-12, Christian Yager 1-6. CR, Dakota Mason 2-63, Armstrong 1-35.