The Wait Is Over: Playoff Football Finally Comes Home to Eatonville

Playoff football is coming home. Not near home. Not a borrowed home. Home.

For decades, when Eatonville made the playoffs, the Cruisers packed up and played their "home" playoff games somewhere else, at Art Crate Field at Bethel High School in Spanaway, or at Cardinal Stadium in Orting, because the Cruisers' own facility didn't meet the WIAA's requirements to host a playoff game. Even Eatonville’s state championship teams of the mid-1980s and early ’90s never played a single playoff snap on their own field in front of their own town. Neither did the outstanding 2021 and 2022 teams, whose postseason runs included trips to the state quarterfinals and the state championship game.

So, ask around this week when Eatonville last hosted a playoff game on its own soil and you'll start an argument. Some say it's been decades. Some of the old-timers will tell you it goes all the way back to the 1970’s. However long it's been, one thing is certain: the wait ends Friday night.

The No. 15 seed Eatonville Cruisers (7-2) host the No. 18 seed Squalicum Storm (4-5) this Friday, November 6, at 7:00 p.m. at Arrow Lumber Stadium at B.W. Lyon Field in a WIAA 2A Round of 32 matchup. The winner advances to the state tournament. The loser's season ends Friday night. There is no tomorrow in this one.

And Cruiser fans, take a moment to appreciate where this game is being played. Because Eatonville voters approved the levy that built our new stadium and turf field, the Cruisers get to host a playoff game at home. That doesn't happen without this community stepping up. Thank you.

HOW THE CRUISERS GOT HERE

Eatonville closed the regular season as one of the hottest teams in the 2A South Puget Sound League, winning four straight to finish 7-2 overall and 5-2 in league play. The Cruisers outscored opponents 298-120 on the season, 33.1 points per game on offense, just 13.3 allowed on defense, with two shutouts.

The regular season ended with a 31-14 win over a 7-2 Orting team that came in ranked No. 10 in the state 2A coaches poll, and that game matters for Friday, because Orting plays a similar style to what Squalicum brings: physical, run-based football. And Eatonville handled it. The Cruiser defense held Orting to 14 points and forced the late turnovers that sealed the win, while Fowler threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns on the other side. It was a dress rehearsal for the Wing-T, and it wasn't the only one.

The other came October 15 at Franklin Pierce. The Cardinals run a true power-T, they attempted just 12 passes in nine games all season, and Eatonville went to Tacoma and beat them 34-26, sealing the win with a goal-line stand at the 2-yard line as time expired. So between Franklin Pierce's power-T and Orting's physical ground game, the Cruisers have already faced two versions of what Squalicum does and beaten both.

MEET THE STORM

Squalicum comes down from Bellingham out of the 2A Northwest Conference, where the Storm finished 4-4 in league and fifth in the standings under head coach Nick Lucey, who has led the program since 2014. Their 4-5 record needs some context, because this is not a typical 4-5 team and it's not a great one either. It's a team that has lived on both ends of the blowout.

Against the best teams on their schedule, the Storm got run off the field: a 49-0 loss to Anacortes, a 51-7 loss to Archbishop Murphy, and a 42-21 loss to Burlington-Edison. But they also played good teams tough, a 19-12 loss to Nooksack Valley and a 35-32 shootout loss to Lynden, and they come into Friday red hot, closing the season with a 42-22 win over Lakewood and a 56-7 rout of Bellingham. That's 98 points in their last two games. Momentum is real, and Squalicum has it.

THE WING-T PROBLEM

Here is what makes this matchup fascinating, and dangerous: Squalicum runs the Wing-T, and runs it about as pure as anybody in the state.

This is old-school, hide-the-football offense. Three backs, constant motion, fakes on fakes, and the ball can end up in any of four hands on any snap. Against Lakewood, the Storm ran the ball 47 times for 469 yards. They typically throw only nine to eleven passes a game, not because they can't, but because the whole offense is designed so they don't have to.

Eatonville has seen this movie before. Franklin Pierce's power-T in October and Orting's ground game just last week and the defense passed both tests, staying gap-disciplined and getting the goal-line stand at the 2 to beat Franklin Pierce. So the Cruiser defense knows what this week of preparation feels like: read your keys, no peeking, tackle your assignment.

The difference Friday is that Squalicum's Wing-T layers on more misdirection, more motion, more fakes, more places the ball can hide and in Maddox Strickland it has a breakaway gear Franklin Pierce didn't. The Franklin Pierce game is both the blueprint and the warning: the Cardinals still piled up rushing yards that night, but when the game was on the line inside the 5, Eatonville's defense didn't break.

STORM PLAYERS TO WATCH

Senior running back Maddox Strickland is the home run threat. Against Lakewood he piled up 182 rushing yards with touchdown runs of 50, 49, 43 and 30 yards, and last week he opened the Bellingham game with a 95-yard kickoff return touchdown. If he gets a crease, he is gone. He is also the most dangerous kick returner Eatonville has seen this year.

Sophomore fullback Tucker Hofstedt is the engine between the tackles. He leads the Storm in carries most weeks. 16 carries for 125 yards against Lakewood and he's also their top receiving option out of the backfield on the rare occasions they throw.

Quarterback Phoenix Price, a 6'1" senior, is a converted tight end who actually started this season at tight end before moving under center. He is a runner first; he broke a 49-yard touchdown run at Sultan and has thrown just four touchdown passes all season. If Eatonville can make Price beat them throwing the ball downfield, that's a win for the Cruisers.

Junior Asher Asbjornsen plays both ways and does it with a club cast on his left hand. 89 rushing yards against Lakewood, 81 yards and two touchdowns against Bellingham, and a factor at linebacker and safety. Wingback Mason Sone is the misdirection and deep-shot specialist, with a 49-yard touchdown catch against Lynden. Senior tight end/strong safety Ray Hoffmann (6'3", 200) was Squalicum's quarterback last year; last week he returned an interception 77 yards for a touchdown, remarkably, the 24th pick-six by a Storm defense under Coach Lucey, the most in Whatcom County since 2014. This defense doesn't just take the ball away, it scores with it. Junior kicker Elias Larranaga has already won a game this year with a 30-yard field goal at Sultan as time expired.

Up front, the Storm line is modest in size, senior Kai Den Hartog (5'11", 245) and junior tackle Kolby Giles (6'3") are the names, built for leverage and angles rather than brute force, exactly what a Wing-T line is supposed to be.

THE CRUISERS' ANSWER

Eatonville's offense is everything Squalicum's isn't: a pass-first spread attack built around one of the most productive senior quarterbacks in the state.

Cole Fowler (6'5", 225) has thrown 24 touchdown passes this season, completing 62.8% of his throws with a 132.7 passer rating, and added two rushing scores. He has three targets who would start for anybody:

● Amari Samuel (Sr.) — the big-play man, averaging a team-high 98.4 receiving yards per game with nine touchdown catches. He also starts at cornerback. Squalicum has no one who can run with him.

● Jacob Simons (Sr.) — a team-high 11 total touchdowns. Ten came receiving, he ran one in as a wildcat quarterback against Orting as the first half expired, and he's even thrown a touchdown pass this year. Oh, and he plays linebacker.

● Sam Kralik (Jr.) — 43 receiving yards per game and four touchdowns, including the 34-yarder that put Orting away.

When the Cruisers do run it, junior Ben Smith (6'3", 250) is the hammer, the team's leading rusher and its top rushing scorer with eight touchdowns. And senior kicker Benjamin Bernt is money: perfect on extra points against Orting, including a 36-yard field goal. In a close playoff game, that matters.

The Cruiser offensive line averages about 6'0", 240 pounds. Dale Swaner, Brett Hutchings, Zach Beane, Mason Lang and Mason Kinley, and it has protected Fowler all season.

Defensively, the Cruisers allow just 13.3 points per game with two shutouts on the season. And when games tighten up, this defense makes the play: in the finale against Orting, it was Nash Sherrard's interception and Cody Jumper's forced fumble that slammed the door in the fourth quarter. Friday, that same defense has to do it with discipline instead of gambles against the Wing-T, the big play usually belongs to whichever defense stays home.

KEYS TO THE GAME

1. Assignment football. The Wing-T beats you with your own eyes. Stay home, read keys, tackle the dive, the keep and the pitch, every play, all night.

2. Score early and make them chase. Squalicum's offense is built to protect a lead and strangle the clock, not to come from behind. A two-score Eatonville lead forces the Storm to throw, and throwing is the one thing they don't want to do.

3. Value every possession. The Wing-T eats clock, long drives mean fewer Cruiser possessions. Eatonville's offense can't afford wasted drives or turnovers.

4. Protect the football. Squalicum's defense has scored on interception returns 24 times under Lucey. Short fields and cheap points are how a 4-5 team wins a game like this.

5. Don't kick it to Strickland. The 95-yard kickoff return last week was his warning shot. Make someone else beat you.

PREDICTION

Squalicum will make this uncomfortable for a half. The Wing-T will shorten the game, the Storm will put together two long, grinding drives, and Cruiser fans will spend the first half doing math on possessions. That's what this offense does to everybody.

But here's the problem Squalicum can't solve: every good passing team on their schedule hung a big number on them, 49 by Anacortes, 51 by Archbishop Murphy, 42 by Burlington-Edison, 35 by Lynden, and none of those teams throws it like Eatonville. Samuel and Simons against that secondary is the mismatch of the game, and once the Cruisers get up two scores, the Wing-T has no comeback gear. A team that throws ten times a game cannot chase 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Eatonville's defense gets the stop it needs, the way it did at the goal line against Franklin Pierce, the home crowd at Arrow Lumber Stadium does the rest, and the Cruisers are moving on to state. And if you doubt this team in a big spot, remember last Thursday: a ranked, 7-2 Orting team came to Eatonville with everything on the line, and the Cruisers beat them by 17 and held them to 14 points. They've already won this kind of game once.

ESN Prediction: Eatonville 35, Squalicum 20.

Kickoff is 7:00 p.m. Friday. Bundle up and be loud, Cruiser Nation, this is win or go home.