TACOMA — Neah Bay is one win away.
One win away from repeating as state champions.
One win from its third Class 1B state title in four years.
One win from proving just about everybody wrong.
The Red Devils held off a determined Lummi team 26-20 in the state football semifinals at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday night.
Neah Bay will be back at the Dome this Saturday for a state championship showdown with Liberty Christian at 4 p.m.
After losing talented seniors who were considered the core of the program’s recent run of success, many questioned if the Red Devils could remain a state championship contender this season.
“We talked about it as a team at the beginning of the season, that, you know, we have something to prove because a lot of people— the [news]paper, everybody — is like, you guys lost 13 seniors, and you guys have got something to prove,” Red Devils coach Tony McCaulley said after Saturday’s win.
“Well, I think they’re proving it now. We got one more step we have to take to really prove it, but our goal was to win the title and we haven’t done that yet so next week is big for us.”
Liberty Christian defeated Neah Bay 34-28 in the 2012 state championship game with a 2-yard touchdown run by John Lesser as time expired.
Since then, the Red Devils have won 24 consecutive games.
Five of those wins have been against Lummi, but none was as hard-fought as Saturday’s victory over the Blackhawks.
Neah Bay freshman quarterback Rwehabura Munyagi Jr. connected on fourth down with Cameron Buzzell for a 28-yard touchdown pass to break a 20-20 tie with 5:42 left in the game.
After that, the Red Devils’ defense forced a two four-and-outs to punch Neah Bay’s ticket to its fourth consecutive state championship game.
Rare for 8-man football, both defenses dominated the day.
Lummi held the Red Devils to 213 total yards, while Neah Bay only allowed the Blackhawks to gain 229 yards.
“It was a defensive game the whole way,” Neah Bay senior Josh Monette said.
“Offensively, both teams struggled . . . and the defense hammered it out the rest of the game.
“There was two scores in the last half? I mean, that was a defensive game the whole way.”
That’s to be expected when two 1B powerhouses are playing each other for the third time this season.
“We made some mistakes, for sure, but Lummi played us extremely tough,” McCaulley said. “They were prepared for us and they did an excellent job.
“It was just a good game. A really good game all-around.
“Lummi, they’re a good football team. I knew they were. I knew it was going to be like this.”
The Red Devils pulled off the tough feat of beating a team three times in one season and now have eight straight wins against Lummi, dating back to the 2011 state quarterfinals.
This is the fourth straight season Neah Bay has ended the Blackhawks’ season in the postseason.
“They really wanted us and we really didn’t want to lose to them,” Monette said.
“Especially for us seniors, there’s no way we wanted to go out losing to our rivals.”
Of Neah Bay’s 213 yards, 168 — more than three-fourths — came on its three offensive touchdowns.
Cole Svec broke a tackle and out-ran the rest of the Blackhawks for a 72-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 6-6 early in the second quarter.
With less than a minute to play in the first half, Svec, out of the wildcat, faked a run and threw to John Reamer for a 68-yard touchdown pass.
It was Reamer’s 14th touchdown reception of the season, but his first in three games against the Blackhawks. In fact, the Blackhawks had limited him to one reception for 3 yards in the teams’ first two meetings this season.
“I knew my time was coming against Lummi,” Reamer said.
“I could bust off big touchdowns on other teams, no problem, but something about Lummi — they bracket me, they’d be following me everywhere, kept hitting me, they did not want me to get the ball.”
Then there was Buzzell’s game-winning 28-yard touchdown catch.
It was Munyagi’s only completion of the game and came after he spent most of the second half on the sidelines.
When the Red Devils struggled to get any offense going, they went to the wildcat formation more and more, with either Svec of Collin Haupt taking the snaps and then, more often than not, taking off.
“It’s something we don’t use much,” McCaulley said.
“We have it in the package just for things like this, and we put it in especially for this week because we thought it was something we could get an extra blocker on the field and we thought be might need it.”
Neah Bay’s other big play came less than 90 seconds after Svec’s touchdown run in the second quarter.
Lummi’s Austin Brockie was running upfield in Red Devils territory when Svec hit him hard enough to pop the ball loose. Chris Martinez caught it in midair and ran 60 yards for a touchdown.
“A couple big plays is all,” McCaulley said.
“You know, that’s what some of these big games come down to, a couple plays here and there.
“Could have gone either way.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
