The Timberline football team pulled away from rival North Thurston with a 20-0 third quarter burst to seal a 47-6 victory Friday, Oct. 2 at South Sound Stadium.
Timberline has now won nine of the past 10 meetings against the Rams.
North Thurston scored first with a 48-yard touchdown run by Mateo Henry, but Timberline stormed in front with a pair of rushing touchdowns before the start of the second quarter.
The Blazers were without top receiver Davin Kirkwood, but Keaton Thomas stepped up with a 40-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Cam Vongdara in the second quarter to give them a 21-7 halftime lead.
Timberline’s offense fired on all cylinders in the third quarter with three touchdown drives.
“We were able to grind them down a little bit. We just executed better,” Timberline head coach James Jones said. “To be honest, they outplayed us in the first half. They were playing harder and putting in more effort. Our guys came out of halftime and buckled it down.”
The Blazers finished the game with a touchdown pass by junior quarterback Nathaniel Lalicker to sophomore Connor Dahlen in the fourth quarter.
Star running back Cooper Jones scored a touchdown in his second game back from injury, and his head coach said he is beginning to get his legs under him again. Timberline rushed for 296 yards behind Jones, King Pridgen and Vongdara.
North Thurston quarterback Nicholas Nutu returned after missing last week’s game against Lakes and most of the Week 3 matchup against Rogers with a shoulder injury. He completed 9 of his 23 passes for 84 yards and helped North Thurston get off to a promising start offensively after the Rams finished with just 15 yards of offense last week.
“We were fired up and played hard. We executed early, and then that same execution started falling apart a little bit,” North Thurston head coach Deon Toliver said. “We’ve got to be able to sustain that intensity for four quarters.”
Timberline (4-1, 1-1 Puget Sound League) will take on River Ridge (0-5, 0-5 PSL) at South Sound Stadium on Friday, Oct. 9, while North Thurston (1-4, 0-2 Puget Sound League) will travel to Peninsula (3-2, 2-0 PSL).
