TENINO — Last year, Rochester rolled to a dominant victory over Tenino, regaining control of the Scatter Creek Showdown trophy.
Through 40 minutes in Tenino in this year’s matchup, though, the Beavers were the better team, and the scoreboard near the blacktop reflected it. Tenino led by seven, and the Warriors were running out of time to find an answer offensively.
“It’s a heavyweight fight,” Rochester coach AJ Easley said. “Nobody goes into a heavyweight fight and doesn’t take one in the mouth. You’re gonna get punched.”
The Warriors took plenty of punches throughout the game on Friday night, but they landed the game’s final blows with a long touchdown drive, a two-point conversion, and an interception to seal a 20-19 victory.
Rochester’s final drive began on its own 12-yard line with 8:28 to play, and the Warriors took 6:53 off the clock while gaining 88 yards on 14 plays.
On third and goal from the 2-yard line, Owen Simpkins punched it into the end zone, and on the two-point try, Maddox Rodgers got to the outside and won the race to the pylon to put Rochester ahead for the first time.
“It’s kind of the Rochester way,” Easley said. “Because our guys have belief in what we do, I don’t think there was any doubt that we could do that.”
The drive left Tenino with just 1:28 to work with, and on the ensuing possession, Emmett Mancuso came away with an interception on the second play to seal the Rochester victory.
“They’ve got to go deep,” Mancuso, who was celebrating his 18th birthday on Friday, said. “I just looked at my man, I see the quarterback, locate the ball, and grab it. I wanted to take it all the way, but the smart thing was to just drop right there.”
The final eight-plus minutes were a breakthrough for Rochester, which had struggled to that point offensively.
Because the Beavers controlled the ball and dominated time of possession, the Warriors were only able to run 34 offensive plays across five drives (excluding a one-play drive in the final seconds of the first half) prior to the final drive of the game.
“There was a little bit of frustration,” Easley said. “We talk all the time about rowing the boat in the same direction. Getting everybody in the boat and going one way … You just gotta keep going and keep grinding and stay together.”
“We had faith that we were gonna get it,” Rodgers said. “When it came down to it, we did what we needed to do … As long as we all do our jobs, it should be a win. Sure enough, we did our jobs.”
Rodgers got Rochester on the board in the first quarter with a 61-yard touchdown run, but those six points were Rochester’s only points of the first half.
Tenino’s Parker Minerich scored twice to cap Tenino’s first two drives, first on a 23-yard run, then on an 18-yard scamper to put the Beavers up 13-6.
Tenino had two chances to add on before the break, but a fumble ended one drive, and a penalty stalled the second just outside the red zone.
Minerich hit paydirt for the third time on the opening drive of the second half, and Rochester’s Kaiser Tartios responded with a 54-yard touchdown of his own.
Rodgers finished with 235 rushing yards and a touchdown on 30 carries, while Tartios finished with 91 yards and a score on eight attempts.
The Beavers again had the chance to add to their lead on the following drive, a 19-play drive that took more than 11 minutes off the clock, but it stalled in the red zone. Tenino gave the ball back to the Warriors at the Rochester 12, where the Warriors went on their final march to win the game.
Between the two drives in the second quarter and that long drive across the third and fourth, Tenino squandered three separate opportunities to build on its lead.
“In a game like this, (those drives) are huge,” Tenino coach Darren Tinnerstet said. “We’ve struggled at times punching the ball in in the red zone for some reason. We’ve practiced it a lot. It’s like we’re allergic to the end zone when we get in the red zone … That’s something we’ve gotta correct and improve there.”
Tinnerstet said he was thrilled with the group’s performance despite the final drive, specifically on the defensive side of the ball, where the Beavers dominated most of the game in the trenches and slowed down Rochester’s prolific rushing attack.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our effort tonight,” Tinnerstet said. “There wasn’t a guy that didn’t leave it all on the field tonight. We knew it was gonna be a battle, and it sure was. We duked it out, and you couldn’t ask for a better game.”
Minerich finished with 266 rushing yards and three touchdowns to lead the Tenino offense.
The Beavers (4-2, 1-1 1A Evergreen) will hit the road for the first time since Week 3 next Friday, Oct. 15, when they’ll head to Hoquiam.
“We’re gonna flush this and learn from it,” Tinnerstet said. “That’s a good football team that we just went toe to toe with, so we know kind of where we stand as far as how good we are this year. I think this is going to make us better.”
Rochester (6-0, 2-0 1A Evergreen) will look to take sole possession of first place the same night, when it hosts Montesano in another 1A Evergreen clash.
In 2024 and 2025, the Warriors and Bulldogs played one-possession games that came down to the wire. If next Friday’s game is anything like those previous two, or like the game in Tenino on Friday night, the Warriors are in for another heavyweight bout.
“This is what high school football is about,” Easley said. “That was something special.”
