Eatonville Falls to Steilacoom 42-0 on Senior Night, Postseason Hopes Hang in the Balance

Eatonville’s post season hopes suffered a setback this past Friday night when the Steilacoom Sentinels came to town and delivered a 42-0 blow to the Cruisers on Senior Night. Penalties and miscues seem to have plagued Eatonville all night.

The Eatonville senior football players and managers pose for a photo with Natalie Naro, Jason's sister following the pregame ceremony honoring Jason and all of the seniors. Photo: Trinity Potter

Prior to the game, the team, parents, and fans honored the 20 senior players, managers, and a fallen teammate with a ceremony. The seventeen players, three managers, and a fallen teammate that were honored who have given their blood, sweat and tears to entertain us on Friday night’s these past four years were: Cole Bamford, Christian Clay, Mark Devera, Aaron Tozier, Sienna Henkel (Mgr), Riley Hill, Hebron, Leasiolagi, Hector Martinez (Mgr), Anthony McChesney-Berube, Jason Naro, Ky Nation, Ellis Sarpy, Logan Shipman, Nick Shipman, Nate Smith, Michael Stogsdill, Dylan Sullivan, Anthony Thorlacius, Tessa Veeser (Mgr), Wyatt Weichsler, and Kellen Wilkie.

Following the ceremony honoring the seniors and Jason Naro, the team gathered together for a moment of silence to honor Jason as well.

Following the ceremony, a touching moment saw fallen teammate Jason Naro’s little sister Natalie heading out with the team captains for the coin toss, another great way the team continues to honor Naro’s memory. Natalie brought them luck as Eatonville would win the toss and elect to defer to the second half and Steilacoom would receive the opening kickoff to start the game.

The Sentinels would open the game driving 53 yards to the Cruiser 15 yard line where the Eatonville defense would stand tall and force a 32 yard field goal attempt that Steilacoom’s Justin Chang pushed the attempt wide right and the Cruisers took over on their won 7 yard line.

The Eatonville offense was only able to muster 6 yards on the drive, and was forced to punt the ball back to the Sentinels, who would take over at the Eatonville 43 yard line.

Two plays later, the Sentinels would get on the board when quarterback Drew McDonald found a wide open Xander Shaw for the 15 yard score. Chang’s PAT would be successful and Steilacoom would take a 7-0 lead.

Steilacoom would get on the board two more times in the half with another touchdown pass to Shaw and one to Austin Mazzone.

The Cruiser offensive struggled in the first half, unable to crack the Sentinel defense as Eatonville would only manage 29 total yards in the half, punting the ball 3 times and losing two fumbles. Steilacoom would take a 21-0 lead into halftime.

Eatonville would receive the kickoff to start the second half. The offense came to life as the Cruisers would start from their 31 yard line and string together a 15 play drive that took them down to the Steilacoom 8 yard line, only to have a fourth down Jackson Doll reception stopped short and the ball would go over on downs to the Sentinels.

The Cruisers struggles continued as they would turn the ball over on downs to the Sentinels on their final three possessions, while Steilacoom would score on all three of their possessions, with a 24 yard scoring reception by Evan Dipetrillo, a 2 yard rushing score from McDonald, and Shon Nelson would cap the scoring on the night by taking the McDonald hand off 57 yards for the score to seal the Steilacoom 42-0 victory.

Eatonville would finish the game with 80 yards of offense while Steilacoom would amass a staggering 511 yards, the most the Cruisers have given up all season.

With the loss, Eatonville drops to 5-3 overall, 3-3 in 2A SPSL league play and in a 3 way tie in the standings. Due to this, the league has moved all of the week 9 games that were scheduled for Thursday/Friday up to Wednesday. So Eatonville’s final regular season game will now be played on Wednesday Oct. 30th when they travel to Orting for their annual rivalry game. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm.

There are numerous scenarios that could either see the Cruisers securing a week 10 playoff game or their season coming to an end. After the week 9 games, if there is still a 3-way tie, a mini playoff will be held on Saturday Nov. 2nd at Franklin Pierce Stadium.