So close — again
by By CHRISTOPHER A. SMITH
Cougs fall in title game for 2nd straight year
It was a scene all too familiar for the Bothell High Cougars.
An unbelievably successful year that ended in tears of sadness rather than joy. Emotional players and coaches once again latching on to each other for comfort rather than elation. Even the scoreboard had a familiar ring to it.
For the second straight year, Bothell (13-1) had an amazing year end just short of the ultimate goal by losing the state championship game, 21-14, this time to Lewis and Clark (11-2) of Spokane last Saturday in the Tacoma Dome. Last year, it was Oak Harbor who beat Bothell by the same score, as 4A Kingco teams have now lost five straight state championship games, with Woodinville, Skyline and Ballard meeting similar fates in years past.
“We’ve done this before. This doesn’t feel good,” Bothell head coach Tom Bainter said afterward. “There’s nothing that I’m going to be able to say to them to make them feel better tonight, nor myself.
“21-14 score got us again.”
It was a disappointing end to a fabulous season. One that saw the Cougars win a school record 13 games and have an undefeated season going into the state championship game.
Bothell quarterback Johnny Hekker tried to remember those positive moments on Saturday, but he kept coming back to how a state championship eluded the Cougars for the second straight year.
“That’s just how it (the season) ended. It ended on the negative and that’s what we are going to think of it as,” said Hekker, who several times accepted blame in front of the reporters for the loss. “But I’m sure we are going to go back (and remember that) we are the first Bothell team to win 13 games in a season, and that’s a great accomplishment. And we really came together and that’s why it’s so disappointing.”
In the early moments of the game, it seemed business as usual for the normal machine-like Cougars, starting a nine-play 71-yard drive with near perfect precision, capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Patrick Otterbech.
Then on the first defensive play, nearly the entire Bothell defense and seemingly half of the sidelines stopped Lewis and Clark star running back Alexander Shaw for a 2-yard loss, eventually causing a three and out.
But Bothell couldn’t keep the momentum on offense, and found the game tied 7-7 entering the fourth quarter.
In the roller-coaster final period, Bothell struck first on a highlight-reel 53-yard touchdown pass from Hekker to Otterbech. The junior running back took a short pass across the middle and broke several tackles, bouncing away from a clump of Tiger defenders, then splitting the players that formed the last line of defense and outran a defender for the touchdown.
But the bruising Lewis and Clark running game behind Shaw, the 216-pound star running back, started to take its toll. Shaw would touch the ball on seven of the nine plays during the game-tying drive, ending in a 9-yard Shaw touchdown run. It was that touchdown run when Shaw set a new class 4A state championship game record for runs in a game with 34, previously set in 2002 by Kentwood’s Will Thompson. Shaw would end up with 176 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries.
“They did what we thought they would,” Bainter said. “They were going to run the ball with (No.) 28 (Shaw). He is big and good. Tip your hats to them. They are a good football team, but we didn’t execute. We didn’t execute in the first half a couple times. We had drop balls, that interception, we didn’t play the game we wanted to at this time of the year. It’s frustrating.”
And the Cougars’ mood after the game, understandably, showed that frustration. After the state championship game last year, many tears were shed, but the players were more congratulatory due to the amazing, if not unexpected, season. Bainter admitted recently that last year’s team, while certainly disappointed with the loss to Oak Harbor, was happy on some level just to reach the title game.
But this year, it was all about whether the team won it or not.
“Absolutely it does (hurt more than last year),” Bainter said. “When you taste it before and it just slips out from under you and then you get a chance to do it again and you let it slip away almost ... We have the ball down there in good field position and we just don’t execute on a play, and we come down here on three and long and we miss him in the backfield for a sack and he rolls out and throws to a covered guy who makes a catch. And then we blow a coverage down here and they score on it. You almost rather have them execute and beat you straight up and not have it be you didn’t play your ‘A’ game.”
Bothell had played “A-plus” games more often than not this year behind a senior class that will go down as one of the best in Bothell history. There were several all-first team 4A Kingco selections, including Hekker, linebacker Cory Burk — who was named the defensive player of the year and also was all-league as a special-team player — defensive linemen Theo Hunt, and defensive backs Ben Moschell and Nate Proulx. The senior class also included star running back and vocal leader Jon Kirchner, who was the only offensive player to start in both championship games.
“These are the seniors who as juniors played and helped us get there, and as seniors went back to the drawing board and square one and lifted weights and did everything you needed to do in the offseason to get back here,” Bainter said. “And then we got back here, and it’s just crushing.”
While next season seems a decade away, Bothell may be in decent shape to make another run next year with several key players returning. Otterbech will come back as one of the most talented running backs in the league, and several big targets at wide receiver, like Perry Conricode, Kurt Stottlemyer and Nick Wiltz, will also return. Junior lineman and co-captain Jackson Pierce was a first-team all-Kingco selection, and will come back to play alongside fellow lineman Robby Storm, who stood out as a linebacker in the state championship game. And the Cougars should also return standout linebacker and touchdown-machine fullback Trey Burwick, who missed the last three games due to injury.
And while the final game was a disappointment for the seniors like Hekker, that doesn’t mean that this year’s seniors can’t help out next year’s.
“I’m going to get on them,” Hekker said of next year’s seniors. “They are going to be the hardest-working class we’ve ever had. They are going to be ready, they are going to be ready for it. They aren’t going to finish second place.”