STANWOOD — For the third straight week, the Marysville Getchell football team edged out a league opponent by one point. And, in Week 7 against Stanwood, the Chargers escaped with another win in the final minutes.
Getchell outlasted the Spartans 21-20 with a game-sealing extra point block from senior linebacker Chayse Randle with 37.4 seconds left in the contest, and a key second-half drive gave the Chargers the go-ahead score.
The victory bumped Marysville Getchell (5-2, 3-2) into third place in the Wesco 3A North race, opening the door for a potential state playoff berth.
The Chargers opened up their offense through a 19-play, 80-yard drive, which spilled into the fourth quarter and ended with a four-yard rushing score from senior Andrew Withers.
“We go through these type of situations at practice,” Chargers head coach Davis Lura said. “We’re not much of a throwing team as we have been in the past, but Stanwood stacked the box on us, so we were gonna have to throw it.”
Getchell’s road victory on the Spartans homecoming night had some extra meaning to Lura, who’s a Stanwood High graduate.
“It’s always nice to come home,” he said.
“Usually though, when you’re in a homecoming game that means the other team thinks they can beat you. But, I told my kids their just doing this because they want me to have a homecoming too, because I haven’t had one in 30 years,” Lura quipped.
Withers finished with two touchdowns and 96 yards on 16 carries, while junior signal caller Arion ‘Bubba’ Palacol had 44 yards on the ground, adding another 83 through the air with one TD.
In the early portions of the night, Getchell built a 14-0 lead as the first half was winding down.
On the Chargers opening drive, Withers broke away for a 46-yard touchdown run at the 3:31 mark in the first. In the second, senior Shawn Etheridge came away with an interception, setting up a 30-yard passing TD from Palacol to Coen Ramsey with 1:31 left before the half.
Stanwood (3-4, 2-3) wouldn’t go away, as junior QB Luke Brennan bombed a 32-yard touchdown pass to senior Max Mayo, who reached the ball across the plain with just 11.6 seconds before intermission as Getchell led 14-7.
After Eben Bland Jr. picked off Palacol in Getchell’s initial third-quarter drive, Stanwood would turn the ball over on downs.
As Palacol coughed up a fumble, the Spartans got another shot to even the score in the third as they started their next drive on the Charger’s 32-yard line, and they delivered.
Sophomore tailback Silas Turpin (15 rushes, 85 yards), who handled lead ballcarrier duties as Stanwood had Cruise Swanson, Chance Swanson and Canyon Bumgarner all sidelined due to injury, needed just one play to net the 32-yard rushing TD, evening the score at 14.
As Getchell took over on its own 20-yard line, the Chargers offense would fully open up.
On third-and-12, Arion Palacol found his brother Mariano Palacol on the sidelines at the first-down marker with 1:07 left in the third.
The Chargers notched five first downs on what was its largest offensive series of the game, with a 16-yard grab from Matiano Palacol on a third-and-10, setting up a first-and-goal.
Withers finished the 19-play drive with a four-yard rushing TD as Getchell re-took the lead at the 6:08 mark in the fourth.
“We’ve cleaned up the fumbles and cleaned up the mistakes,” Lura said. “Early on in a season and you’re an option team, you’re going to have some fumbles early on. .. If we don’t fumble, we’re hard to stop. So, I think we’ve cleaned that up and we’re just cleaning up all phases of the game.”
As Stanwood took over on offense, the Spartans would milk the clock into the game’s final plays.
Run plays from Bland Jr. of 14, seven and 11 yards helped push Stanwood into the redzone before Mayo split the defense on a nine-yard rushing score, pulling Stanwood within a point.
After attempting a potential game-winning two-point conversion, Getchell was penalized on a horse collar tackle by the goal line, setting up the Spartans to go for it a second time.
After both coaches blew through their remaining timeouts, Stanwood was called on a false start, pushing back the ball spot to the 6-yard-line, triggering an extra point attempt.
The Stanwood crowd was hushed after Randle swatted away the game-tying PAT as the Chargers picked up their fourth consecutive win.
“It feels great,” Bubba Palacol said. “The last three wins have been by one point, and I feel like our win against Mariner (Week 4) got our confidence up and we’ve been building onto that. We had a rocky start to the second half, but our defense clutched up and blocked that kick.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
