Eagles upended by Roosevelt in state football tournament

After an impressive win over Ferndale in the opening round of the playoffs, the Federal Way Eagles football team was faced with its most daunting task of the season — a date with the fifth seeded Roosevelt Rough Riders.

The Eagles fell 40-0 to Roosevelt on Nov. 16. They faced a ton of adversity in this game specifically as well as throughout the season. Just making it to state was an accomplishment in and of itself.

“I’m very proud. People counted us out, people said we would be 3-7 again because of the kids that left. But more importantly we had kids that stayed and stayed true. The worked hard and were 8-2. I’m damn proud of this team, our leadership, work ethic, stayed together and fought for each other,” Eagles Head Coach Marcus Yzaguirre said.

A 3-7 record from a year ago was heavy on the minds of Federal Way this year, and they wanted to prove that year to be a fluke — and they did just that.

“Last year was a season that we knew we were better than our record. As much as we wanted to go further this year, we set the tone of who we are and what type of team we are,” said senior and co-NPSL Offensive Player of the Year Austin May.

There is some off the field history between these two sides. Roosevelt’s football program is in the midst of a fact finder investigation around alleged recruiting violations.

A victim of that alleged recruiting was Federal Way — on the Roosevelt playoff roster, there were five former Eagles suiting up in the green and gold. When asked about the familiarity between these two programs, Coach Yzaguirre did not comment about it.

On the field, luck was not on the Eagles’ side of the field. Seemingly at every turn, Federal Way was on the short end of the stick. But Federal Way gave no quarter and battled until the final horn.

“That is their identity. It’s Fed Way. We are a bunch of dogs. No matter what it is, who plays us, no matter when it is, we are going to come out and give it everything we had,” Coach Iz said.

Federal Way’s defense was going to be tested. Roosevelt has one of the most potent offenses in the state. Quarterback Dalton Anderson seemingly can make any pass on the field, and he made a few throughout the course of the game against the Eagles.

Being the underdog is a position that Federal Way is comfortable in: “We’ve been underdogs the whole time I have been here. We see it as a challenge, not as a threat,” May said.

But on the first Roosevelt drive, the Federal Way defense made a goal line stand. On the one yard line, the Eagle defense forced a fumble that Anthony Tumor Jr. picked up and tried to run out of the endzone, but ended up just getting across the goal line before he was tackled.

The Rough Riders’ first score of the game came on a punt return of 43 yards, which was then followed up by a 69-yard touchdown pass from Anderson to Kash Lexing, putting Roosevelt up 14-0.

In just the second quarter, the wheels started to fall off, unbeknownst to anyone on that Eagle sideline.

Quarterback Andy Cortez went out with a lower leg injury, and the catalyst of the highly potent Eagle offense didn’t come back, which was a big loss that can’t really be quantified and really hamstrung the Eagles.

“It was a slow downward spiral that just kept adding up,” May said.

Then with under 30 seconds remaining, with their defense on the field, Zamarie Tellez was ejected. Roosevelt had just completed a big play and then there was a stop in play. There was then a sportsmanship meeting between the captains and coaches on the 20 yard line of the Eagles.

But as Tellez was walking over, because he is a captain, the referees then informed Yzaguirre that Tellez was the player who was going to be ejected.

A playmaker on offense and a playmaker on defense — done for the night. When asked for a reason, Yzaguirre declined to comment on that as well.

The very first play after Tellez was ejected, Anderson scrambled into the endzone for the touchdown.

In the second half, the Eagles had Jayden Sinclair taking snaps at quarterback. Sinclair did make a handful of plays, but Yzaguirre didn’t comment if he would start next season. With Cortez being a senior, Sinclair could be the answer at quarterback.

“He can play everything, so well see,” Coach Iz said.

The Rough Riders got to a 40-point lead in the third quarter on a JoJo Paaga touchdown, which capped the scoring and sealed the Eagles’ fate with a 40-0 loss.

A senior who has seen the ups and downs of this program, May knows that a loss in this way on this stage will be motivation for next year.

“No one wants to feel this feeling ever again. That locker room and that bus ride home is one of the worst feelings ever, keeping this in the back of their mind that ‘We can’t feel this again,’” May said.