STANWOOD — Todd Bevan didn’t hate Stanwood.
But he cheered pretty hard for Marysville Pilchuck when the Tomahawks played the Spartans.
Todd, whose son Josh is a senior for the Tomahawks, died Monday morning after a battle with cancer. Monday night, Josh scored a team-high 24 points for Marysville Pilchuck in an 85-75 Wesco 3A North upset victory over Stanwood.
“(The game) was at Stanwood, so already it was a big game but it turned into a bigger game,” Bevan said. “My dad has a special bone in his body that he wants to beat Stanwood. He doesn’t hate Stanwood, but he’s always wanted to beat Stanwood. The game against Stanwood happened to be today and we got the ‘W’ for him.”
Josh Bevan and the Tomahawks honored Todd at a Coaches vs. Cancer game against Arlington less than two weeks ago. He was well-known by the Marysville Pilchuck players and loved by all.
“Anyone whoever met him knows he has this glow about him and it shows in Josh. It’s really, really special,” said Marysville Pilchuck head coach Bary Gould. “… It was really emotional. I got the call this morning from Josh’s mom that he passed away this morning. It kind of snowballed from there. We had to scramble and figure everything out. Even at that point, she told me Josh wants to play.”
Josh Bevan said there was never a chance he wouldn’t play against Stanwood (9-1 league, 15-5 overall).
“Never once crossed my mind that I wasn’t playing tonight,” Bevan said. “I would never miss a game against Stanwood.” “He wanted to do what he felt his dad would want him to do and he felt like he’d want to play,” Gould said. “And play he did, with 24 points.”
Josiah Gould scored 17 points, Freddy Brown scored 16 and Nate Heckendorf added 12 for Marysville Pilchuck (8-2, 9-10) in the contest.
“I started off the game missing a few shots but I got it rolling at the end of the first quarter,” Bevan said. “As soon as I got my feet wet I was good the rest of the game. The team was playing unbelievable too.”
Before the game the team talked about Todd Bevan but Gould was careful not to put too much additional pressure on the Tomahawks to win Monday night.
But Gould admitted he wanted a victory pretty bad.
“It’s always important to try to beat Stanwood but this just added so much of a bigger-picture element,” Gould said. “I don’t know that it’s important that we won, but in my heart I really, really wanted it. … In this case, I was just thinking how sweet it would be, how cool it would be just to get this one. It didn’t matter, as far as the standings — Stanwood’s still league champions and we’re second — but for Joshua and his family it was huge.”
Josh said his family is doing OK.
And that Monday night helped.
“We kind of knew it was coming. We’re OK now,” Bevan said. “The win tonight definitely helped take a little bit of the sadness away.”
At Stanwood H.S.
M. Pilchuck 25 18 17 25 —85
Stanwood 15 18 22 20 —75
Marysville Pilchuck—Hunter Whitney 8, Josiah Gould 17, Josh Bevan 24, Erik Lind 3, Freddy Brown 16, Tyler McDonald 0, Nate Heckendorf 12, RaeQuan Battle 5. Stanwood—AJ Martinka 8, Bryson Kelley 12, Cameron Plautz 3, Chase Strieby 26, Henry Oldow 6, Quinton Borseth 3, Isaac Olson 4, Austin Wilhonen 10, Trygve DeBoer 3. Records—Marysville Pilchuck 8-2 league, 9-10 overall. Stanwood 9-1, 15-5.
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