The Arlington Eagles had one goal heading into Friday’s match-up against Everett: Win the title. The only thing on the players’ minds was winning the Wesco 3A North title outright. Arlington hasn’t done that since 2010. The Eagles wanted it bad. They wanted it for their coach. They wanted it for injured senior captain George Spady. They wanted it for their community. And, boy, did they get it.

Seagulls running back Aki Howell (’16) capitalized on good field position for the Seagulls following an AHS fumble inside their own 35 yard line. It was all Arlington after that. Wyatt Hawthorne (’17) intercepted an Everett pass that set up a Devon Nutter (’17) two yard touchdown stampede. “It feels good knowing that I contributed to the team’s successful regular season,” Nutter said. “I never thought I’d get to be as instrumental as I have been,” but still, Nutter said, “we could’ve been even better.”

A pair of two-point conversions and a Nutter seven yard touchdown, his seventh on the year, later, the Eagles led 16-6. They pushed their lead to 23-6 just before the half as Kyle Bayer (’16) hauled in an over-the-shoulder catch from Andrew Kalahar (’16).

Arlington started the second half with a 43-yard catch and run by Nutter and an Avery Winterer touchdown catch just thirty-seven seconds into the half as they put the rout on. Everett junior quarter back Murdock Rutludge struggled to get anything going against an inspired and stubborn defense led by Senior Hunter Gardowski (’16), who finished with 12 tackles.

The Eagles were even dominant on special teams as well, with Nutter making a handful of tackles to keep the Seagulls deep in their own territory. “I got to play on varsity kickoff during the last game of my freshmen year… Ever since then, I’ve played on special teams,” Nutter said.  “I just rolled with it.”

The Eagles eventually went up 43-6 before the Seagulls scored their second touchdown with just a few seconds left in the game to make the final score 43-13.

Arlington hopes to see this level of play and better from Nutter and the rest of their team next week against Glacier Peak in the Wesco 3A championship at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium Friday night at eight.