Eatonville Cruiser Football: A Look Ahead

With it being a little more than halfway through the 2022 high school football season, the Southwest Washington District 4 playoffs are starting to take shape. As difficult as it was to swallow the Eatonville loss against Montesano, there is potentially more news that may be difficult to hear for some.

With the Cruiser loss to the Bulldogs, Eatonville is no longer in contention to be able to claim the Evergreen Conference title for the second straight year as well as secure a #1 seed into the district playoffs. The best finish the team can achieve at this point is second place in the league and a #2 seed in the district playoffs.

Eatonville will need a few things to happen to secure a 2nd place finish and that #2 seed.

First and foremost, they will need to win their remaining league games against Elma and Hoquiam. If they can do that, they will also need Montesano to defeat the Tenino Beavers when the two teams meet on Oct. 21st. A win by Tenino in that game would result in a 3-way tie with Eatonville, Montesano, and the aforementioned Tenino. This scenario assumes all three teams win their remaining conference games.

A 3-way tie would require the tie-breaker to be used to determine a league champion. The Evergreen Conference tie-breaker system works as follows:

The first tie-breaker is head-to-head play. If Tenino beats Montesano, this would be null and void and it would go to the next tie-breaker, which is the point differential

In the scenario I mentioned above, the point differential would be used to break the 3-way tie. Meaning, they would take the number of points a team wins or loses to the other two opponents by, with a maximum of 14 points. For example, if Montesano beat Eatonville by 21 points, with 14 points being the maximum used in the tiebreaker, Montesano would be a +14, and Eatonville would be a -14.

If Montesano beats Tenino and defeats Elma, they would claim the league title and the #1 seed, Eatonville would be the #2 seed, and Tenino the #3.

If Montesano loses to Tenino but defeats Elma, they would claim the league title and the #1 seed, Tenino would be the #2 seed and Eatonville would receive the #3 seed.

Below is what needs to happen for Eatonville to secure 2nd place and the #2 seed:

Eatonville – Defeat Hoquiam & Elma

Montesano – Defeat Tenino & Elma

Tenino – Lose to Montesano

If all of that happens, Eatonville will finish in 2nd place in the Evergreen Conference and will be awarded the #2 seed into the district playoffs, and will host the Trico League's #3 seed in week 10.

The Cruisers will finish out their regular season schedule with an away game at Elma on Saturday, October 22nd at 7 pm. This game was originally scheduled for Friday but due to a referee shortage, it has been moved to Saturday.

Following that game, Eatonville will host the Hoquiam Grizzlies for Eatonville’s Senior Night on Thursday, October 27th at 7 pm. Senior Night recognition usually begins between 6:30 - 6:45 pm.