The Woodland Beavers were riding high on seven straight wins and a 2A Greater St. Helens League title but saw their season come to a close in the state playoff preliminary round.
The Beavers quickly fell behind with costly errors to a strong Cedarcrest Red Wolves team from Duvall, losing 34-14, on Friday, Nov. 8
The Beavers offense tallied up multiple costly turnovers after quarterback Elijah Andersen found wide receiver Will Clemens for a touchdown pass to strike on the first offensive possession.
A story all season has been the Woodland defense barely giving up points the entire year. The Beaver defense devoured opportunities last week with four turnovers but could not fully shut down the Red Wolves offense, which kept landing free possessions of their own.
“I think we could beat them. It’s a team we definitely could beat, you know, credit to them. They did what they had to do,” Beavers head coach Glen Flanagan said. “They did what they had to do, but we didn’t put ourselves in a position to win. We kind of turned it over a few too many times and didn’t take advantage of our opportunities, and then we gave out some big ones from our defense.”
After scoring on the first possession, the next two opportunities with the football ended abruptly with fumbles for the Beavers and allowed the Red Wolves to conquer the opportunity column as they quickly scored twice to gain a lead that they never relinquished.
The league champ Beavers joined the other four 2A GSHL teams that advanced into the preliminary round with losses.
“It was not the way we wanted to end it, but I’m proud of these guys,” Flanagan said of his team as he made the move from defensive coordinator to head coach this year. “I told them, thank you for a great season, and I’m sorry I couldn’t take them further. You know, I never want to end in the first round. … This group winning the two league championships, you know, kind of really set the tone for the program.”
As Flanagan looks ahead to the future with a solid young core, he said he hopes to continue building on the successes from the last two years.
