Mountain View picks off Evergreen

Mountain View’s Andrew White makes a one-handed catch and runs it in for a 72-yard touchdown in the first half of the Thunder’s win. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian)

Highlight-quality catches helped inject life into the Mountain View offense on Friday.

But it took a clutch grab by a Thunder defender to squeeze the life from the Evergreen Plainsmen at McKenzie Stadium.

Jack Tudela’s 90-yard interception return in the closing seconds sealed a 35-21 victory for the Thunder, which beat Evergreen for the first time in recent memory and prevented the Plainsmen from earning a share of the Class 4A Greater St. Helens League championship.

The result means Skyview is the league’s No. 1 seed into the bi-district playoffs, Heritage is No. 2.

An Evergreen win Friday would have forced a three-team playoff on Monday, and it looked like the Plainsmen would at least extend their season beyond Friday’s fourth quarter when they reached the Thunder 1-yard line with less than a minute left in a seven-point game.

A penalty and two plays later it was third down from the 8. Evergreen quarterback Marvin Thomas rolled to his left. As he was being knocked out of bounds near the 15, he flung a desperation pass forward.

“I was so scared we might lose the game,” Tudela said. “I saw that ball coming to me, so I caught it and just ran my hardest.

“I was so happy when I had that ball and I was running down field.”

Tudela’s dash was the last in a series of big plays that added up to a big finish for the Thunder.

Despite being out of playoff contention and despite falling behind quickly, the Thunder played with a spring in their step and their offense found its stride.

Quarterback Cameron Pape threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns, and a Mountain View offense that struggled to find consistency this season proved it had playmakers.

Two of Pape’s touchdowns came on acrobatic plays that pushed the Thunder ahead 21-7 midway through the second quarter.

First, Austin Tremel made a juggling catch in the right side of the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown that put his team ahead 14-7 in the first minute of the second quarter.

Then, after the Thunder defense stuffed a fourth-and-short play to halt an Evergreen drive inside their 30, Andrew White made a one-handed catch while sprinting behind the defense for a 72-yard catch and run that made it 21-7.

“I was surprised I caught it,” White said. “I stuck out one hand — I couldn’t get it with two — and just brought it in.

“Somehow it just hit my hand and fell in the right place.”

Pape, who completed 11 of 19 passes for 229 yards including touchdowns of 29 yards to Joseph Vance and 76 to Lucas Swanson, said that touchdown came on a makeshift play the coaches drew up to try to break White loose in the middle of the field.

It was, Pape said, one example of how the Thunder threw everything they had at their rivals.

“All the seniors, we had one game left and we just had to play with everything we had,” Pape said. “We got it done.”

Adam Mathieson, Mountain View’s first-year coach, said he was most pleased with the way his team competed start to finish, and made enough big plays to get the win.

“The key for us is we’ve been on the downside of close games and the upside of close games, so our kids are very comfortable playing in those types of arenas,” Mathieson said.

The Thunder led 21-14 at halftime, and the score stayed there until four minutes remained in the game when Mountain View’s Swanson broke free along the left sideline and Pape hit him in stride for a 76-yard TD on a second-and-16 play.

“We talked all week about guys being able to make big-time plays,” Mathieson said.

Trailing by two touchdowns with four minutes left, Evergreen made almost enough big plays to save its season. Ronald Briggs’ kickoff return gave the Plainsmen the ball at the Thunder 40, and three plays later Briggs turned a mid-range pass over the middle into a 39-yard touchdown with 3:34 on the clock.

After forcing a Mountain View punt that Evergreen’s Kyrell Hudson returned to the Thunder 35, the Plainsmen had more than two minutes to work with.

A defensive holding penalty moved the ball to the 11, and then Thomas scrambled for nine yards on fourth down to put the ball at the 1-yard line.

But a motion penalty moved the ball to the 6, Hudson lost two yards on a run, and Thomas threw incomplete to the end zone before Tudela’s interception ended the drama.

“The scariest thing in my life,” Pape said of Evergreen’s late-game push. “We’ve been working for this for four years, and I felt it kind of slipping away, but we stopped them. It’s the best feeling.”