WIAA 2B state football championship: By land or air, Okanogan puts supremacy on display

SEATTLE - Even though his run offense offers the overall feeling of being smacked by a freight train, Okanogan High School coach Erick Judd insists one other fact.
The Bulldogs do practice passing the football.
Just in case.
And they needed to Saturday in the WIAA Class 2B championship game.
It helps when the quarterback is 6-foot-6 Carter Kuchenbuch, whose throws can cut through the drippy, blustery conditions present at Husky Stadium. The Boise State University signee passed for a career-high four touchdowns, ran for three more score - and even added an interception on defense as the Bulldogs beat state rival Napavine, 52-21.
With the victory, Okanogan repeated as WIAA champion with its core group of 26 seniors, led by Kuchenbuch., who finished with 299 yards of total offense (157 rushing, 142 passing).
"They’ve been playing together forever," Judd said. "They were the biggest core of last year’s team."
Napavine took an early 7-0 lead on Grady Wilson's 4-yard touchdown run, eating up nearly seven minutes on its opening series.
And the Tigers were ready, too, for the Bulldogs' power run game. So, Judd decided to let Kuchenbuch go to the air.
It was the right move as Kuchenbuch found Ryan Goyne on a 34-yard scoring connection to answer Napavine.
The key play came with 10 seconds remaining before halftime as Okanogan - trying to add to its 8-7 lead - faced a fourth-and-18 from the Tigers' 39.
Napavine even called two timeouts to get its defensive formation ready, but Kuchenbuch launched a long pass down the left sideline that Taige Mendenhall caught up to in the end zone for a momentum-swinging touchdown.
"Huge," Kuchenbuch said. "You've got to make the big play. You've got to get it down."
Kuchenbuch opened with a 34-yard touchdown run just 82 seconds into the second half to push Okanogan's lead to 22-7, and the Tigers were buried beneath the onslaught.
"All of us since we were little kids, we’ve been dreaming about this," Kuchenbuch said. "This is something we’ve wanted. This is icing on the cake for all of us. This is awesome."
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