Bears battle Seahawks to a last-second thriller

BREWSTER – Football fans received every cent of excitement for their ticket prices last Saturday when the Chief Sealth Seahawks from Seattle’s 3A Metro League landed on Champion Field for a non-conference game against the 2B Bears.

What should have been a mismatch turned into a gridiron nailbiter that was not decided until the final four seconds of the final fourth quarter.

The Seahawks got on the board first after scoring from four yards out behind an eight-play drive midway through the first quarter.

Brewster wasted little time introducing the west side team to the pigskin in the provinces. Head coach Travis Todd commented on the Bears’ first quarter gains.

“On our first score Brady Wulf hit Mario Camacho over the middle of the field for a 79-yard touchdown,” Todd said. “On our next drive we marched down the field and Cort Gebbers took a direct snap and plunged into the endzone for our second score. Fabian Nava hit a 34-yard field goal as well.”

The Seahawks had to play some catch up to match Brewster, 14-14, at the mid-point of the second quarter. With less than three minutes remaining until halftime the Bears began a march that would set the tone of the game up to its final three minutes.

A field goal with 2:47 left in the second quarter put the Bears up 17-14, and a TD at 1:13 extended that to 23-14. With a minute remaining, Chief Sealth crossed the end zone to close within two points, 23-21.

Through the third quarter each side added a TD and the Bears maintained a 30-20 lead until 10:10 in the fourth when Brewster struck again to go ahead 37-28.

Chief Sealth began to feel the pressure and closed within two, 37-35. On their next possession the Seahawks resorted to a no-huddle, hurry-up offense to get within field goal range. They punched a 30-yard kick through to take the lead by one, 38-37 with four seconds left.

“This was a good opponent for us and a playoff type caliber for schools our size,” said head coach Travis Todd. “I am hoping this will prepare us for teams like Manson and Okanogan who we will face in the coming weeks.”

The Bears play the defending state champion Okanogan Bulldogs on the road Oct. 27.

“I thought our guys played hard and did well enough to knock off a bigger school,” said Todd, “but we had too many mental mistakes to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483, michael@ward.media