Plainsmen rallied from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit
VANCOUVER — It was a win more than a decade in the making for the Evergreen Plainsmen.
For the first time since 2007, the Plainsmen own the rivalry.
Tae Marks blocked a punt in the closing minutes and then caught a touchdown pass from Carter Monda with 1:36 to play as Evergreen rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun Mountain View, to stun the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League, with a 40-35 victory at McKenzie Stadium.
Fittingly, Evergreen senior Derrick Webb ended the night with an interception with 11 seconds to play, preserving the lead as the Thunder got deep into Plainsmen territory. Webb scored four touchdowns on offense and had three takeaways on defense.
“This means everything to me,” he said. “To do this on Senior Night …”
“Oh my gosh. This means the world,” Monda added. “You don’t know how hard we worked for this. Since day one, August, training camp. This is probably the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life. For sure. Easily.”
The result changes the entire league. Mountain View, the three-time defending league champion, had not lost a league game in any of those championship seasons.
Now Evergreen, Mountain View, Prairie, and Kelso each have one league loss with two weeks left in the regular season. Only three go to the playoffs.
Evergreen coach Christian Swain told his players to celebrate this victory for a day, but then they had to turn their focus to what’s next. After all, the Evergreen Plainsmen now have a shot at the playoffs, and at a league title.
“It’s a program-changing win,” Swain said.
The victory itself would have done that. How they did it, though, will be remembered for years.
Malikiah Batties caught his second touchdown pass of the game from Riley McCarthy with 1:43 left in the third quarter to give Mountain View a 35-20 lead.
The Thunder would not score again.
The Plainsmen wouldn’t stop scoring.
Webb’s 14-yard touchdown run with 9:11 left in the fourth quarter capped a 14-play, 85-yard drive for the Plainsmen, who converted two fourth downs on the drive.
Hope.
The Plainsmen recovered an onside kick, then went on a 13-play drive. Webb cashed in from a yard out to make it 35-34 with 4:59 to play in the game.
Oh, it’s on.
Evergreen went for two, and made it, but a penalty took away the points. Then the Plainsmen missed the kick.
Mountain View recovered the next onside kick but the Evergreen defense held the Thunder to three yards after three plays. The Thunder lined up to go for it on Evergreen’s 45-yard line but McCarthy stepped back in order to take the snap and then punt.
Marks saw it all the way, blocked the punt, then recovered it all the way inside the Mountain View 10-yard line. (A penalty on Evergreen pushed the ball to the 22-yard line, but it was Evergreen ball.)
Evergreen euphoria.
Three plays later, Monda found Marks in the back of the end zone to go up 40-35.
“I just had to give everything that was in me. I had dropped a touchdown (earlier) so I had to do something to make it up,” Marks said. “I was just thinking, ‘I need to do this for my team. I had to.’”
The blocked punt was one thing, but then he got the winning touchdown, too.
“That was the most joy I’ve ever had,’’ Marks said. “It was on my Senior Night. All my friends and family were here. I had to show up. If I didn’t, I would have remembered that for the rest of my life.”
Instead, he gets a positive memory forever.
“This is something big. This is the start of a legacy,” he said of the Plainsmen.
Mountain View did have a chance to retake the lead. The Thunder moved from their own 20 to the Evergreen 24-yard line and had four shots from there in the closing seconds.
Three incomplete passes, and then Webb’s interception, allowing Evergreen to celebrate.
“This is the best game I’ve ever played, but there’s more to come,” Webb said. “I’m looking forward to that.”
“At halftime, I told them, ‘I just want you to leave your guts on the field. Just give it everything you’ve got for four quarters, no matter what the score is,’ and they did that,” Swain said. “I think we just unlocked something inside them that they always had. It’s a special night.”
Evergreen got the first two touchdowns of the night, scoring runs by Webb and Tyvaunte Deloney, for a 12-0 lead.
The Thunder, though, responded and took a 14-12 lead at the half on a touchdown run from McCarthy and a pass from McCarthy to Batties.
Mountain View only needed four plays to start the second half to take a 21-12 lead. McCarthy had an 11-yard touchdown run.
Evergreen bounced right back on its next possession, with Webb scoring on a 1-yard run. The two-point try made it 21-20.
McCarthy, who finished with 214 yards rushing, broke free for a 64-yard touchdown on the next play from scrimmage. And after an Evergreen punt, McCarthy hit Batties for the score to put the Thunder up 35-20.
Not too many people expected it to be all Evergreen the rest of the way.
“We just shocked the world,” Monda said.
“We just had a belief in ourselves,” Webb said. “We were told to not let up. Keep fighting until the whistle blew. Play all four quarters, and that just got us the dub.”
And an Evergreen victory for the ages.
Here is the interception to seal Evergreen’s 40-35 win over Mountain View. Derrick Webb with the pick. He said it was the best game of his life.@EvergreenPlain1 @SportsPlainsmen pic.twitter.com/YJZeQleeAA
— Paul Valencia (@ValenciaCCT) October 19, 2019
EVERGREEN 40, MOUNTAIN VIEW 35
Mtn. View 0 14 21 0 — 35
Evergreen 12 0 8 20 — 40
First quarter
Eve — Derrick Webb 14 run (kick failed)
Eve — Tyvauntae Deloney 1 run (run failed)
Second quarter
MV — Riley McCarthy 2 run (Jude Mullette kick)
MV — Malikiah Batties 31 pass from McCarthy (Mullette kick)
Third quarter
MV — McCarthy 11 run (Mullette kick)
Eve — Webb 1 run (Carter Monda run)
MV — McCarthy 64 run (Mullette kick)
MV — Batties 26 pass from McCarthy (Mullette kick)
Fourth quarter
Eve — Webb 14 run (Tae Marks pass from Monda)
Eve — Webb 1 run (kick failed)
Eve — Marks 23 pass from Monda (pass failed)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Mountain View — Zack Gable 17-88, McCarthy 21-214, Va Ili 1-3. Evergreen — Deloney 18-62, Webb 13-54, Monda 8-26, David Grant 2-2, Zyell Griffin 5-28.
PASSING: Mountain View — McCarthy 5-15-2-94. Evergreen — Monda 16-27-0-214
RECEIVING: Mountain View — Davis Delmage 3-37, Batties 2-57. Evergreen — Jayle Fite 6-79, Griffin 6-94, Camren Smith 2-14, Tae Marks 2-27.
Union 56, Heritage 7: Earlier in the night, the Union Titans found a groove early and cruised past the Timberwolves.
CJ Jordan threw for 329 yards and four touchdowns — plus he rushed for a score — in the first half, then took the rest of the night off as Union improved to 1-1 in the 4A GSHL.
Jack Eggleston and Tobias Merriweather each hit the century mark in receiving yards. Aidan Hoyt returned an interception for a touchdown. The second half was played under running clock rules.
Sweet play from Union quarterback CJ Jordan to Tobias Merriweather. @UniontitanFB pic.twitter.com/KaWof9TWi0
— Paul Valencia (@ValenciaCCT) October 19, 2019
UNION 56, HERITAGE 7
Heritage 0 0 0 7 — 7
Union 21 28 7 0 — 56
First quarter
U — Rocky Mataia 1 run (Sonny Pitts kick)
U — Jake Bowen 20 pass from CJ Jordan (Pitts kick)
U — Maliki Campbell 34 pass from Jordan (Pitts kick)
Second quarter
U — Jordan 4 run (Pitts kick)
U — Aidan Hoyt 31 interception return (Pitts kick)
U — Tobias Merriweather 20 pass from Jordan (Pitts kick)
U — Jack Eggleston 1 pass from Jordan (Pitts kick)
Third quarter
U — Campbell 22 pass from Alex Gehrmann (kick good)
Fourth quarter
H — Nikki Scott 1 run (Israel Gonzalez kick)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Heritage — Isaac Roa 6-19, Nickelson Datel 2-0, Anthony Kee 7-36, Andre Cowley 16-94, Scott 5-(minus 29), Team 1-(minus 2) . Union — Isaiah Jones 4-13, Jordan 2-14, Mataia 2-5, Vinh Luong 2-1, Julius Jones 9-33, Aiden Olson 1-4, Team 2-(minus 10).
PASSING: Heritage — Scott 4-10-1-23, Jacob Zepeda 0-1-1-0. Union — Jordan 13-19-0-329, Gehrmann 3-5-0-25 .
RECEIVING: Heritage — Datel 2-4, Kaleb La Mere 1-8, Kee 1-11. Union — Bowen 3-50, Eggleston 5-102, Merriweather 3-104, Campbell 2-56, Liam Boyce 1-39, Anthony Kay 1-(minus 1), Te’Juan Conde 1-4.
Other scores
Camas 41, Battle Ground 14
Union 56, Heritage 7
Skyview 53, Olympia 14 (Thursday)
Prairie 44, Hudson’s Bay 14
Ilwaco 12, Fort Vancouver 6
Hockinson 21, Kelso 14
Columbia River 48, R.A. Long 0
Washougal 40, Mark Morris 7
Ridgefield 34, Woodland 6
King’s Way Christian 26, Columbia-White Salmon 16
