9/2/2022

Napavine 40, Adna 0

(Napavine, WA) It is always an interesting challenge when a team opens up their season against one of their biggest rivals. That was the case for both the Napavine Tigers and Adna Pirates as they opened up their season on Friday night. For the Tigers, it was another year to showcase a new wave of talent on the gridiron. For the Pirates, it was the beginning of a new era with Jason Dunnagan taking over for KC Johnson as the head coach after Johnson left to become the superintendent of the Raymond school district. When the game was over, it would be Napavine sending a message to the rest of the 2B classification as they would roll to a 40-0 week one victory.

While the Tigers had to replace some key pieces from their 2nd place team in 2021, Adna returned almost their entire team after only graduating seven seniors from last season’s team. One of the key retuning players was quarterback Lane Johnson who led the offense on the field to begin. It turned out to be a long day for the Pirates as the Tiger defensive line smothered the rushing attack of Adna. The Napavine secondary also glued themselves to Adna receivers so even though the Pirate offensive line gave Johnson time to throw, there was nobody to get the ball to. It was a near flawless performance by the Napavine defense.

One familiar face for the Tigers was their quarterback Ashton Demarest. The junior QB grabbed a lot of attention after taking over from his brother who graduated in 2021. Demarest didn’t look like he missed a beat and had plenty of offensive weapons despite the loss of Gavin Parker. The offense responded too all the questions with a near perfect night offensively scoring on their first four drives. Demarest led the way through the air and on the ground all night. By the end of the night, six different Tigers accounted for touchdowns and Demarest would throw for four of them. He found Connor Holmes, Cael Stanley, James Grose, and Karsen Denault all for touchdowns in the opener.

Cael Stanley impressed at running back and looked more than able to fill the void left by Gavin Parker. Stanley showcased how tough he was to tackle on a 60-yard touchdown reception that started off as just a dump off pass from Demarest. Stanley added another rushing touchdown later in the second quarter as well.

The offensive and defensive line of Napavine had massive shoes to fill with Keith Olsen now at the University of Utah. They looked just as good on Friday night as they did all of last season. They consistently won both their run and pass blocks and cause massive issues on defense all night. This was a game where the Tigers reminded the state just who they were.

The MVP of the game went to Ashton Demarest who had 291 passing yards and four touchdowns to go along with 93 rushing yards. Cael Stanley totaled 101 yards combined on the ground and receiving with two touchdowns while Austin Chapman added 52 rushing yards and a touchdown. Karsen Denault shined in the passing game with five catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers outgained Adna in yards 495 to 22.

Adna will look to bounce back on Friday in their home opener against Pe Ell/Willapa Valley. The Tigers will remain at home for another rivalry game against the Onalaska Loggers on Friday in a game you can catch on ESN.

Play of the Game: Stanley takes short pass 60 yard to the house

Postgame Show

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