OAK HARBOR — Anacortes football is set to defend its 2A state title after defeating WF West 35-13 in the semifinals Saturday, Nov. 30 at Oak Harbor High School.
The win set up a state title rematch with Tumwater, which the Seahawks won 60-30 in December 2023. No. 2 Anacortes and No. 1 Tumwater will face off at 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.
But against W.F. West Saturday, it was all Anacortes all the way.
“Once we got a feel for the game, we saw how they were going to play us and knew what was going to work,” coach Justin Portz said. “Our defense kept things under control and we stopped them the whole game.”
Gallery: Anacortes football blows past W.F. West in state semifinals
The Seahawks flew out to an early lead after receiving the opening kickoff. On the second play of the game, Ryan Harrington found Rylin Lang diving backward to make a 32-yard catch. On the next play, Brady Beaner shed multiple tackles and scored a 42-yard touchdown run within the first 90 seconds.
Harrington finished 15-for-20 for 191 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Beaner was 5-for-6 for 40 yards passing and had 10 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown. Lang hauled in four catches for 97 yards.
The Bearcats tried to respond by marching down to midfield before fumbling a handoff and Anacortes’ Toby Esqueda recovering it. Beaner stepped in at quarterback and threw a deep third-down pass to Lang for the first down.
“That catch was insane,” Portz said. “That was one of the best catches I have ever seen. He does that type of stuff in practice and it doesn’t surprise us.”
Lang made a leaping one handed toe-tapping catch on the sideline before being pushed out of bounds for a 14-yard gain. Brock Beaner finished the drive with a 5-yard touchdown carry to make it 14-0.
In the second quarter, both defenses stood strong. Bearcats’ Grady Westlund strip-sacked Harrington on fourth down. Then on the next play, Seahawks’ Tyler Olson recovered a fumble on a botched handoff.
The turnovers continued to pile as Harrington took a shot downfield near the goal line but was intercepted by WF West’s Grayson Serl.
With a minute left in the first half, Harrington jumped back into the quarterback position and handed the ball off to Lang, who threw a 40-yard pass to Luca Moore. Moore scored a few plays later on a 19-yard pass from Harrington to make it 21-0 at halftime.
Anacortes began the third quarter by recovering their own onside kick. Harrington then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Brady Beaner. Brock Beaner capped off the third-quarter scoring with a 29-yard touchdown run.
Once the fourth quarter arrived, Anacortes allowed the younger players to finish the game. WF West took advantage and scored a couple late touchdowns when the game was already decided.
“It was a lot of fun to play a game against a good team, but we had to go the way we hoped it would go,” Portz said. “We don’t care about garbage-time points or running up the score, we just care about winning. Our JV kids deserved to get reps.”
Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN's sports reporter; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
