Marysville Pilchuck shows its moxie in way it competed

TACOMA — Marysville Pilchuck believed all week.

Friday night, the Tomahawks had everybody believing.

Marysville Pilchuck battled to the end against Bellevue, one of the top-25 high school teams in the nation, with its season on the line. The Tomahawks refused to give up and went down to the wire before Bellevue pulled ahead late in a 20-10 victory over Marysville Pilchuck in a 3A state semifinal game at the Tacoma Dome.

With all due respect to the 1958 NFL championship game, I saw the Greatest Game Ever Played Friday night.

It was a back-and-forth battle to the fullest. Marysville Pilchuck did not give up. When Bellevue scored, the Tomahawks countered. The Marysville Pilchuck fans achieved CenturyLink-like decibels as the third quarter ended with the score tied 10-10.

“It was crazy. Just the intensity, whenever we made a play, how loud it was right behind us,” senior Austin Joyner said. “I could feel the vibrations going through my bones.”

“The most physical game I’ve ever been in. It’s just crazy how much support we had,” Drew Hatch, a senior linebacker, added. “We filled our side (of the Tacoma Dome). You looked up at the crowd and you were just so amazed.”

Everybody knows what happened at Marysville Pilchuck on Oct. 24. But nobody, myself included, can possibly imagine what the students — and football team — have been through since then.

Football was a way for the kids to stay distracted. It gave them something to pour their heart and soul into. It gave the community a rallying cry. It gave a community a reason to cheer.

“The way the kids rallied around each other, and the way the community rallied around us, it was neat to see,” Marysville Pilchuck head coach Brandon Carson said. “We shed some light on a dark, dark time.”

In a twist of fate, the Tomahawks just happened to get matched up with Bellevue in the state semifinals. One of the greatest juggernauts in high school football, the Wolverines haven’t lost in 67 consecutive games, have won the past six state championships and have more Division-1 players on their squad than there are in most leagues.

“We came up a little bit short against a really incredible football team,” Carson said. “Our kids have nothing to hang their heads about. What they’ve accomplished throughout the course of the year. … I’m really proud of these kids for what they’ve done, not only for each other but their entire community. I just wish we could play one more game.”

Several people reached out to the Tomahawks, including long-time talk show host Montel Williams. Williams, who has talked with several players, coaches and community members on social media, wanted to help remind Marysville Pilchuck that there is still hope.

“This will be a season remembered for the group of extraordinary young people who, faced with unspeakable tragedy, helped set the tone for how 10/24/14 will be remembered,” Williams said in an email. “Not for the unspeakable tragedy it was, but rather for what happened next which will always stand as a powerful memorial to those who were lost.”

Win or lose, the Marysville Pilchuck football team already accomplished so much.

Austin Joyner refused to give up. Killian Page refused to give up. Drew Hatch refused to give up. Brandon Carson refused to give up. The Tomahawks refused to give up.

The Marysville community refused to give up.

Even in the closing seconds, Marysville Pilchuck fought for all it could, trying to keep Bellevue out of the end zone and preserve a chance at victory.

“I feel like everybody played a great game and we did all that we could out there on the field,” Joyner said. “Sometimes you don’t win. Everything’s not going to end the way you want it. I’m just going to preach to the guys to keep their heads up and we’ve got to move forward. That’s the only thing you can do.”

And after it was all over, the Marysvile Pilchuck fans, who filled six rooter buses and almost half of the Tacoma Dome, let their team know just how much they appreciated them.

“This game was No. 1. I’m never going to forget this game and all these kids that I love,” Joyner said. “Everybody was so close. That bond, I’ll never forget.”