2024 championship rewind: A look back at the WIAA title games in Husky Stadium
Revisiting the 2024 state championship victories for Sumner, O'Dea, Anacortes, Royal, Okanogan and Wilbur-Creston-Keller
Held in the largest college football stadium in the Northwest for a second season last winter, Gridiron Classic saw a couple of gigantic Washington high school records set — and the weekend’s final WIAA championship game decided on the final play.
Here is a recap of how the 2024 season concluded in December at Husky Stadium in Seattle:
CLASS 4A
Placekicker Austin Ferencz had missed two earlier kicks, but none of that mattered on the final play Saturday night.
Ferencz nailed a 21-yard field goal as time expired, lifting Sumner to a 27-24 victory over Camas, and giving longtime coach Keith Ross a first state title in his 23rd season.
“We did this for Coach Ross,” Ferencz told media after the game. “We call him our ’Shepherd.’ He guides us all.”
The Papermakers had tied the game at 24-24 on Jackson Tyler’s 34-yard field goal with 6:07 remaining, but the Spartans marched 65 yards — aided by a fake-punt conversion — to set up the winning points.
It was Sumner’s first WIAA championship in 47 years.
CLASS 3A
Newcomer Uriah Stringfield continued his postseason breakout with 170 yards and three total touchdowns, and the vaunted O’Dea defensive front held defending state champion Bellevue in check as the Irish won, 38-15, to close out Friday night.
O’Dea’s win gave Monte Kohler his 394th win, tying retired Tumwater legend Sid Otton for most career coaching wins in Washington state history.
“I appreciate them,” Kohler told media after the game. “It’s been their effort, their will.”
Stringfield — a transfer from Central Kitsap who began the season as the third-string running back and rushed for a career-high 301 yards in the state semifinals win over 3A Metro League rival Eastside Catholic — scored on a 62-yard touchdown run on the Irish’s first second-half series to give them a 21-7 lead.
On O’Dea’s next series, Stringfield hauled in a 19-yard scoring pass, and the lead was 28-7.
CLASS 2A
In a mid-level rematch between the classification’s power brokers, Anacortes defended its title with a 20-10 win over Tumwater on Saturday.
The game was largely a defensive struggle, with the Seahawks riding a pair of Ryan Harrington-to-Rylin Lang touchdown passes and Brock Beaner’s 66-yard scoring scamper, while Tumwater’s Wing-T offense was held to 200 yards and a touchdown on 66 rushes.
“We knew we had to score enough, and our defense had to make a couple of stops,” Anacortes coach Justin Portz told media after the game. “And they did.”
Tumwater snapped a 7-7 tie on Dylan Stevens’ 28-yard field goal with 2:05 remaining in the third quarter, but Beaner’s long touchdown run just seconds later gave the Seahawks the lead for good.
In 2023, Anacortes defeated the T-Birds, 60-30.
CLASS 1A
Small-school powerhouse Royal was not going to be denied history.
Led by quarterback Lance Allred’s 1A championship game record six touchdowns runs, the Knights overcame a mistake-filled first half to polish off Seton Catholic, 61-28, on Friday.
Royal became the first school to ever win five consecutive WIAA championships.
The all-state quarterback registered scoring runs of 39, 19, 3, 14, 49 and 48 yards as part of his 21-carry, 203-yard performance. He also passed for 200 yards and a score, finishing with 403 yards of total offense.
“It’s in these big games where he’s shined the brightest,” Royal coach Wiley Allred told media after the game.
After giving up a kickoff return for a touchdown, and two first-half fumbles, Royal broke a 21-21 tie on Lance Allred’s 4-yard scoring scamper to cap a long half-opening series — and spark a run of 27 consecutive points.
CLASS 2B
Okanogan will never be mistaken for an Air Raid offense, but in another title-game showdown against Napavine, Boise State-bound Carter Kuchenbuch and the Bulldogs showed they could get things done by the pass.
Kuchenbuch threw for a career-high four touchdowns, and added three rushing scores as the reigning state champions dominated the Tigers, 52-21, on Saturday.
With the win, the group of 26 Okanogan seniors went out winners, including Kuchenbuch, who amassed 299 yards of total offense (157 rushing, 142 passing).
“They’ve been playing together forever,” Okanogan coach Erick Judd told media after the game. “They were the biggest core of last year’s team.”
Protecting an 8-7 lead, Okanogan scored with 10 seconds to go in the first half on Kuchenbuch’s 39-yard touchdown to Taige Mendenhall on fourth down.
Kuchenbuch opened with a 34-yard touchdown run just 82 seconds into the second half to push Okanogan's lead to 22-7.
CLASS 1B
Wilbur-Creston-Keller had been blown out of Husky Stadium in 2023. It did not want a repeat of that against favored Liberty Christian to kick off state championship weekend.
The Wildcats’ ball-control rushing attack was on point, rolling up 416 yards — including a game-high 210 by running back Preston Michel — as Wilbur-Creston-Keller held off the Patriots, 42-34, to win its first WIAA championship.
Wilbur-Creston-Keller ran a whopping 85 plays in the game, to Liberty Christian’s 31.
"Obviously we have an old-school mentality — smashmouth football," Wildcats coach Darin Reppe told media after the game.
After Liberty Christian cut it to 28-26 on Charlie Branning’s 39-yard touchdown run, it had a chance to take the lead, but was stopped on fourth down on the Wildcats’ 38.
Michel answered on the other end with a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to push it to 36-26.